A Hōjōki Translation
Translator’s Note In the Summer of 2025, I taught myself Classical Japanese. As I was nearing the end of the summer, I began to read the various English translations of the works I had just finished reading in Classical Japanese, such as the Hōjōki . Dissatisfied by the work of others, I wondered what it would be like to translate a work myself. Specifically, I wanted to translate a work as literally as possible, and then in that process, see the problems that arose from such a translation philosophy. Accordingly, my translation is not intended to be particularly easy to read (although I have indeed tried to make it relatively readable while still maintaining the integrity of the original). Instead, it is an experiment in translation. There are several other translations of the Hōjōki available online at no charge, and this translation is intended to complement them for an invested English-language reader. Many translations into English or Modern Japanese attempt to clarify or e...