“Isn't it weird if a contemporary Japanese girl speaks Church Slavonic?”

Dmitry Kovalenin is an orientalist, graduate of the Far Eastern State University, translator into Russian of Haruki Murakami’s books “Th e Wild Sheep Chase”, “Dance Dance Dance”, “Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World”, “Aft er Dark”, “1Q84”. Author of the books, “Entertaining Murakami studies” (2004), “Made in Hipponia” (2005), “Zombies of our century. Entertaining Murakami studies from ‘Subway’ to ‘1Q84’” (2020). In this issue of PI, chief inspirator of Murakami fandom in Russia, Dmitry Kovalenin, explains why Japanese people laugh at Russian jokes only out of politeness, why translators “improve” Dostoevsky, and where to look for “Chekhov's infl uence” in Murakami’s texts.