CAIRO - The play begins with sad tunes, as she sits on a chair in a black blouse and black trousers, reading a book. She stands up and launches into a monologue.“Life is difficult without a man.” Through the window, she can hear a man and his wife whispering sweet nothings to each other. She feels jealous, as she's always alone at home. The woman is divorced and has a four-year-old child. Her husband left her because he wants to do an MA and their home is too noisy. He also feels bored. These are trivial reasons for a man to leave his wife. She still loves her ex-husband. "I'll call him," she says, passionately. When she hears her little girl crying, she hurries off stage to her. When she comes back again, she tells her audience that she has changed her mind and won't call him. "I will not return to him. I'll live without him. I won't be afraid of people gossiping.” The above is the plot of a story entitled A Sphere of Light, penned by Yuko Tsushima, born in 1947, a contemporary Japanese fiction writer, essayist and critic. Her story was translated into Arabic by professor Ahmed Fathi of the Japanese Department, Faculty of Arts, Cairo University. Yuko is the daughter of famous novelist Osamu Dazai, who died when she was only 12 months old. "Her father committed suicide with his mistress. Her elder brother, who was mentally disabled, died when he was only nine. These tragedies have had a serious impact on her personality," says Fathi. “The concept of family doesn't exist in her works. The heroine has no parents or grandparents. Most of her stories are about a woman who is divorced or about to get divorced.” This story is one of 11 short stories written by Yuko and published in 1979. Fathi translated five of these stories that were published as a book by Merit Publishing House. "There are no dramatic turns in this story. It describes feelings, clothes and rooms in a way that the reader/viewer might find monotonous. Japanese authors like to mention every detail in their stories," he told The Egyptian Gazette. "You can say that this story is global. This woman could be from anywhere the West, the East or Africa.” It's the story of a divorced woman with a little daughter, who has to endure people's gossip and hide from her ex-husband her feelings for him, for the sake of her dignity. "When I read the story in Arabic, I liked it. I thought first of using a Japanese woman or an Egyptian woman in Japanese clothes. But then I said no," says Sherif Hamdi, the director of the play. “It's better to Egyptianise the story, as Egyptian women have the same feelings as the Japanese heroine.” The play, performed a fortnight ago at the Rawabet Theatre in downtown Cairo, was organised by the Japan Foundation Cairo Office (JFCO) and attracted both Japanese and Egyptians. "The play was interesting and the Egyptian actress very impressive," said Koji Sato of JFCO. "There are similarities between the Japanese woman and the Egyptian actress, but the Japanese heroine is more broken and quiet.” One of the Egyptian audience said he regretted the fact that the Japan Foundation had not done more translations of Japanese works into Arabic. "The Japan Foundation translates three or four books a year. Maybe that's not enough. I feel sorry that our efforts don't satisfy Egyptian readers," added Sato, who promised more cultural co-operation and cultural events in the near future.
