Today, I’d like to write about Kawabata Yasunari (1899~1972) who won Nobel Prize for Literature in 1968, he was the first Japanese who was awarded the prize. I came to know his work “The Izu Dancer” in high school modern Japanese textbook. Since then, I became his fan and read back his works from time to time.
今日は、日本人で初のノーベル文学賞を1968年に受賞した川端康成 (1899~1972) について、書きたいと思います。川端作品は、初めて高校の国語現代文の教科書で「伊豆の踊り子」を読んで知って以来、人生の折々の場面で読み返して来ました。
When 18, I visited an inn that Kawabata wrote “The Izu Dancer”. All of a sudden without an appointment I rang the door bell, in spite of that the lady owner was kind enough to show around the room that Kawabata stayed for a long time and wrote the work. The place was next by an inn that I stayed for an orientation camp in Izu as a freshman of university. I was just a literature girl back then and now that I fully understand I was too bold. However, I appreciate the lady owner so much that she showed me the treasured room. I wonder how she is doing by now…
十八歳の頃「伊豆の踊り子」が執筆されたお宿を訪れたことがあります。突然の訪問にも関わらず、川端が長逗留をして原稿を書き上げた部屋へも通して頂きました。そのお宿は、大学の新入生合宿で訪れた伊豆の古い旅館の隣だったのですが、文学少女だった私の熱意だけで突然押しかけて、それでも尊い家宝の在りかを案内してくださった女将さんは、今も元気でいらっしゃるでしょうか。
Kawabata lost his parents when little and lost his grandfather when 16 who lived with him until the last moment. Then he became all alone in the world. And the lonesome solitude was beside him all through the life and that inevitably affected his literature with deep and dark shadows.
川端は幼い頃に両親を失い、十六歳のとき最期まで共に暮らした祖父も失って天涯孤独になりました。この寂しい孤独の影が、生涯川端にはついてまわり、彼の文学に深い悲しみを漂わせています。
I have 5 books of Kawabata at hand.
私の手元には五冊の川端作品があります。
Among them, I read back “Snow Country” that I read in high school, which was one of the objects of the Nobel Prize. I read it back once in a while and it turned out to be so old and stained, it says 240 yen (about 2 dollars) on the back. “Snow Country” was written from 1935 to 1947, taking 13 years to complete.
その中でも、高校の頃に買って、ノーベル賞受賞の対象作品ともなった「雪国」を読み返しました。時折読み返し、古くなってシミもついた裏表紙には、240円とあります。「雪国」は1935年から1947年まで約13年かけて完成した作品です。
The main character who seemed to be Kawabata himself was attracted to a geisha girl, Komako. He was intrigued by her when Komako told him that she had been keeping a diary since 16 and recording all the titles and the authors and the relations of the characters of the books that she ever read. I believe you also have once experienced falling in love attracted to someone’s intelligence. The geisha in snow country adores intelligence and the intellectual and edgy guy from Tokyo who is reflected upon Kawabata himself got mesmerized unexpectedly. The scene is described delicately.
川端本人と思われる主人公が芸者の駒子にぐっと惹きつけられるくだりは、駒子が十六の頃からずっと日記をつけているということと、読んだ全ての小説の題名と筆者と人物の名前と関係性をノートに書き留めているという話を聞いた時でした。人の知性に魅力を感じて恋に落ちるというのは、あまねく人が経験する心模様の一つですが、雪国に住む芸者の知への憧れに、東京で先端的な知識人として暮らしていた川端自身を投影したと思われる主人公が、不意に魅了されてしまった情景も、精緻に描写されています。
And on a sunny day with crisp air in winter, Komako said “It sounds distinguished on a day like this” and started playing shamisen (a three-stringed Japanese banjo). She had been teaching herself for years by reading textbooks, so that the main character looked down on her in his heart, “It couldn’t be so good, she’ just a 19 or 20 country geisha girl.” But right after Komako started playing, “His cheeks got so cool with goose bumps and his stomach turned crystal clear. His mind got blank easily and the sound of shamisen echoed through. More than astonishment, he was completely knocked down. He felt it devoutly, and was washed away with regret. ” It sharply cuts out the moment you fall in love, so irresistibly.
また、冬の空気が冴え渡った晴れた日に「こんな日は音が違う」と、駒子が何年も一人で稽古本を見ながら独習して来たという三味線の音色を聴いて、「十九や二十の田舎芸者の三味線なんか高が知れているはずだ」と思っていた主人公が、その音色を聴いた途端「頰から鳥肌立ちそうに涼しくなって、腹まで澄み通って来た。たわいなく空にされた頭の中いっぱいに、三味線の音が鳴り渡った。全く彼は驚いてしまったというよりも叩きのめされてしまったのである。敬虔の念に打たれた、悔恨の思いに洗われた。」というくだりは、抗いようもなく人が人に惚れてしまう瞬間を鮮やかに描きとっています。
Komako is a geisha and the main character is living richly as a writer in Tokyo who is indulged with parents’ inheritance. The love between the two is so fragile, they are able to meet only once in a year. So the conversations of them are so odd like an entangled yarn, it enhances abruptly and goes out easily like the tide. The two of them can’t become one no matter what, and it is nothing but beautiful and sad.
芸者の駒子と、親の遺産を食い潰し物書きをして東京で贅沢な暮らしをしている主人公との恋は、年に一度の逢瀬しか叶わぬ誠に儚い結びつきで、だからこそ二人で居る時の会話は、ちぐはぐな感情のもつれた糸みたいに急に高まったり、あっけなく潮が引いたりするのですが、その完全に一つにはなれぬ二人の間にあるものは、やはり美しく切なく哀しいとしか形容できぬものがあります。
Before I got married my mother and I visited the place of “Snow Country” of Echigo Yuzawa in Nigata prefecture. Experienced the severe coldness, and saw it was snowing thickly, I fully understood that the novel is reflecting the breezing of the place faithfully. In the freezing coldness, you long for warmth of someone crazily.
私は結婚前に母と二人で、この「雪国」の舞台となった新潟の越後湯沢を訪れました。あの底冷えのする、分厚い雪がしんしんと降りつのる様を身体で感じ、この「雪国」という小説は、あの場所の息遣いを忠実に映し出して居るのだと識りました。あの冷え冷えと凍りつくような寒さの中で求める、狂おしいまでの人肌恋しさを。
In Japan, we have a literature genre of novels based on the author’s own life. You sublimate your experiences by writing works. Kawabata was the one who wrote those novels. It is said he experienced plentiful very sad love that are base of his works. He kept trying to heal his wounded soul by transforming them into beautiful yet sad novels. And his long time dream since very young to win Nobel Prize for Literature as the first Japanese came true. However, he committed a suicide several years later. I ponder through his life, with extraordinary talent and sharp edged sensitivity, he received the greatest honor and the tragedies.
日本には、自分の実体験を小説へと昇華させて来た文学の分野があります。川端の作品にはその下敷きとなる、決して満たされぬ悲しい恋が幾つもあったと言われています。自身が受けた心の傷を、美しくも哀しみに彩られた小説へと書き換えることで、彼は自身の魂を癒そうと試み続けて来ました。そして少年の日に夢見た、日本人初となるノーベル文学賞を受賞することを叶えました。それでも、川端はその数年後に自殺を図ります。尋常ならざる才能と鋭利すぎる感性が導いた、その人生の栄光と悲劇に想いを馳せます。
Beauty and solitude. You desire to have someone so intensely, but the lonesome desire never gets filled. Eros and sadness are able to melt together? Can they become one? The life of Kawabata was sincerely seeking for the answer. Sometimes with sanity, sometimes without it, he was seeking for the warmth all through his life.
美しさと淋しさと。誰かを激しく求め続けて居るけれど、決して満たされぬ飢えにも似た寂寥感。エロスと悲しさは溶け合うのか、それは一つとなれるのか。川端の人生は、そう思い詰めてひたすらに、狂おしいほどに、問い続けた生涯だったのだと。人の温かさを求めながら、ただひたすらに。
