泉鏡花の小説「草迷宮」の現代語訳。 【あらすじ】 物心つく前の最後の記憶に残る、亡き母の唄っていた懐かしい手毬唄。 それについて思い出したのは、母とよく一緒に毬をついていた三人の娘のことである。 一人は既に亡くなり、一人は嫁いで会うことができず、もう一人は神隠しにあって行方が知れない。 唄への憧れが募り、その文句を求め、その娘を探して、諸国を旅して回っていた葉越は、ある夏、三浦半島秋谷を流れる小さな川で、五色の糸でかがられた美しい毬を拾う。 ちょうどそこに来合わせた爺に、その地で起こった不思議な話を聞いて、彼は黒門の別邸と呼ばれる曰くつきの屋敷の一間を借りることにした。 しばらく滞在して旅の疲れを休めたく、また、そこで自分の望みが叶うような気がしたからである。 街道の茶店で、爺に連れ添う婆から、やはり黒門での無残な出来事を聞き、浮かばれぬ人々の供養を頼まれた旅の僧が、その夜、明と二人、蚊帳の中に枕を並べていると、ぽたり－と何かがその枕元へ落ちてきた。 【あとがき より】 本書は、明治後期から昭和の初めにかけて活躍した作家、泉鏡花(1873-1939)の作品の現代語訳である
Author
Japanese profile: 泉 鏡花 Kyōka was born Kyōtarō Izumi on November 4, 1873 in the Shitashinmachi section of Kanazawa, Ishikawa, to Seiji Izumi, a chaser and inlayer of metallic ornaments, and Suzu Nakata, daughter of a tsuzumi hand-drum player from Edo and younger sister to lead protagonist of the Noh theater, Kintarō Matsumoto. Because of his family's impovershed circumstances, he attended the tuition-free Hokuriku English-Japanese School, run by Christian missionaries. Even before he entered grade school, young Kintarō's mother introduced him to literature in picture-books interspersed with text called kusazōshi, and his works would later show the influence of this early contact with such visual forms of story-telling. In April 1883, at ten years old, Kyōka lost his mother, who was 29 at the time. It was a great blow to his young mind, and he would attempt to recreate memories of her in works throughout his literary career. At a friend's boarding house in April 1889, Kyōka was deeply impressed by Ozaki Kōyō's "Amorous Confessions of Two Nuns" and decided to pursue a career in literature. That June he took a trip to Toyama Prefecture. At this time he worked as a teacher in private preparatory schools and spent his free time running through yomihon and kusazōshi. In November of that year, however, Kyōka's aspiration to an artistic career drove him to Tokyo, where he intended to enter the tutelage of Kōyō himself. On 19 November 1891, he called on Kōyō in Ushigome(part of present-day Shinjuku) without prior introduction and requested that he be allowed into the school immediately. He was accepted, and from that time began life as a live-in apprentice. Other than a brief trip to Kanazawa in December of the following year, Kyōka spent all of his time in the Ozaki household, proving his value to Kōyō through correcting his manuscripts and household tasks. Kyōka greatly adored his teacher, thinking of him as a teacher of more than literature, a benefactor who nourished his early career before he gained a name for himself. He felt deeply a personal indebtedness to Kōyō, and continued to admire the author throughout his life.
