What Translators Don’t Tell You When Translating Haruki Murakami：A Textual Analysis of Jay Rubin’s English Versions of “The Elephant Vanishes”

This paper examines Jay Rubin’s engagement with the Japanese language not only as a translator of Haruki Murakami but also as a language teacher, focusing on his textbook Gone Fishin’ (1992), later revised as Making Sense of Japanese：What the Textbooks Don’t Tell You (1998). While Rubin is widely known for his English translations - especially The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle (1997) - and his critical biography Haruki Murakami and the Music of Words (2002), his pedagogical work has received little attention in literary studies. This article situates Rubin’s textbook in the context of world literature and translation studies, examining how his use of alternative Japanese version of Murakami’s short story “The Elephant Vanishes” serves as a tool for both language teaching and literary interpretation.By analysing the interplay between Rubin’s pedagogical aims and his translational choices, the study argues that his translations reflect the sensibilities of a language teacher attuned to the complexities of cross-cultural reading. Rubin’s work implicitly advances Murakam’s project of situating Japanese literature within a global literary framework, demonstrating how translation can function as a critical site of literary and cultural negotiation. Ultimately, the paper highlights the translator’s dual function as a mediator and educator within the transnational circulation of contemporary Japanese fiction.