Eminent Authors of Contemporary Japan/Volume 1
Eminent Authors of
Contemporary Japan
One-act Plays and Short Stories
Compiled by
Eric S. Bell and Eiji Ukai
Volume One
Kaitakusha
Tokyo
Preface
The plays and short stories which appear in these two volumes are all translations from the well-known playwrights and authors of contemporary Japan. I commenced this work several years ago, and it comprises all I have translated since January 1925 till now. Many of these stories and all the plays have already been published in either “The Japan Times” of Tokyo, or “The Osaka Mainichi.” It is with their kind courtesy and permission that I am able to reprint them in book form.
My most grateful thanks are especially due to the authors who so graciously gave me their consent to translate their plays and stories into English.
My aim in doing these translations has been to enable English readers in Japan to have the opportunity of reading the works of some of Japan’s best-known writers, for up till the present time I think none of these have been translated into the English language.
It is almost impossible that any translation can equal, much less excel the original; so to derive any true benefit or thorough enjoyment from any work of this kind is by getting into direct touch with the original text written in the original form and language. I have therefore decided to include the Japanese texts which may add to the interest of the Japanese reader.
The task of a translator becomes doubly hazardous when he is translating the Japanese language into English, because the very inspiration of the two languages is so widely different. The habits, traditions, and even the thoughts of the Japanese people are extremely different from those of Europeans, and there is very little kinship in the grammatical constructions of the English and Japanese languages. This makes the work of the translator all the more difficult.
In the case of the present translations I have done my best to present them in a form that can easily be understood from an English reader’s standpoint. There is little pretence on my part of presenting them as efforts of any literary merit as far as English is concerned, but I have tried to translate simply, yet without losing the charm of the original Japanese text.
I am deeply indebted to the following translators who did the original translations from Japanese into English with my collaboration:
The late Mr. Yoshinobu Tada,
Professor of English at the Matsue High School, in western Japan.
Mr. Haruo Endo,
A boy student of the 4th year grade of the Seijo Middle School, Tokyo, Japan.
Mr. Eiji Ukai,
Professor of English at the Seijo Middle School, Tokyo, Japan.
Mr. Eitaro Sayama,
Professor of English at the Seijo Gakuin, Kinuta Mura, near Tokyo.
Any faults that may be found by the reader in the interpretation of the contents of this book lies entirely with the translators, but should the readers find in it some deserving or praiseworthy merits, the credit is entirely due to the original Japanese text.
February 1930.
Eric S. Bell
Suzuno Isamu,
Higashi Kaigan, Chigasaki,
Kanagawa-ken, Japan.
Contents
The White Fox (A One-act Play by Jun-ichiro Tanizaki) |
4 |
A Case of Child Murder (A One-act Play by Yuzo Yamamoto) |
43 |
Awakening (A Short Story by Toson Shimazaki) |
81 |
The Story of a Fallen Head (A Short Story by Ryunosuke Akutagawa) |
95 |
Tu Tsuchun (A Short Story by Ryunosuke Akutagawa) |
111 |
The Razor (A Short Story by Naoya Shiga) |
131 |
Araginu (A Short Story by Naoya Shiga) |
149 |