In The Three-Cornered World, an artist leaves city life to wander in the mountains on a quest to stimulate his artistic endeavors. When he finds himself staying at an almost deserted inn, he becomes obsessed with the beautiful and strange daughter of the innkeeper, who is rumored to have abandoned her husband and fallen in love with a priest at a nearby temple. Haunted by her aura of mystery and tragedy, he wants to paint her. As he struggles to complete his pictures and solve the enigma of her life, his daily conversations with those at the inn and in the village provide clues and inspiration toward solving the mysteries she presents. Soseki Natsume examines each event and scene in this story in minute detail, creating balanced pictures in each small situation. Interspersed with philosophies of both the East and West, Soseki’s writing blends two very different cultures and presents the unique world of an artist struggling with his craft and his environment. An evocative picture of the daily life in a mountain village of the times, The Three-Cornered World provokes through and images equally.
著者について
Soseki Natsume (1867-1916) is widely considered the foremost novelist of the Meiji period (1868-1914). After graduating from Tokyo Imperial University in 1893, Soseki taught high school before spending two years in England on a Japanese government scholarship. He returned to lecture in English literature at the university. Numerous nervous disorders forced him give up teaching in 1908 and he became a full-time writer for the Asahi Newspaper. In addition to fourteen novels, Soseki wrote haiku, poems, academic papers on literary theory, essays, autobiographical sketches, and fairy tales.
漱石の「草枕」の英訳です。草枕を The Grass Pillow と直訳したのでは、旅という含意が English readers には伝わらない。題名は本文中の文句「三角のうちに住むのを芸術家と呼んでよかろう」から取ったものです。本書を買った理由は、冒頭の有名な「知に働けば角が立つ。情に棹させば流される」に始まる一章が英語でどう表現されているかを見たかったから。さすがにターニー先生、巧みに処理しています。それにしても、漱石は難しい漢字や漢詩や理屈が多い。英訳のほうがかえってわかりやすい。原作とターニーの英訳を読み比べると、難解な日本語も自然な英語で表現できることがよくわかり、たいへん勉強になりました。