from The Very Unmentioned Archives for the Printed Version of Me Head

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New Translation of Japanese Classic

Adds Depth, Meaning

by Mattie Lefou

ProCare has published a new translation of the popular Hidei Tanawa piece, "Cassette Demagnetizer Cleaner". While the translation by Winter and Carradine is expected to remain the standard, the new work by Adrienne Wolnough introduces a simmering, crisp idiom that proves very seductive over time. Compare, for example, renderings of a passage near the end of the work. The standard version is given first:

“…please must clean the audio magnetic head by the audio cassette cleaner after demagnetizing, since the static dust still locate around the head by audio head cleaner to get fresh sound.”

And now Ms. Wolnough's:

“After demagnitize of head, use cleaner and remove with cleaning the head, since this to static remains located around it; and improves sound of quality of clean tape head”

If we can forgive her occasional indulgences (thanks to her keen eye for detail, we can), Wolnough's work strikes us as a pleasure academic and aesthetic, a smart introduction for those who are not equipped to appreciate Tanawa's work in the original.