山本有三とS・ツワイク

－『永遠の兄の目』翻訳の意味－

抄録

　This paper is concerned with the investigation into the reason why the translation of Stefan Zweig’s ‘Die Augen des ewigen Bruders’ was performed in 1927 by Yūzō Yamamoto.

　The reason why the significance of this translation has not received attention for so long is due to the fact that Yūzō was too prosperous in his literary activities to absorb some materials from foreign writers during the year 1925 to 1929.

　It is said, however, that Yūzō viewed this work of Zweig’s with deep interest when its translation was shown by Mr. Kenji Takahashi in 1927. Following that, he attempted to translate it himself. This fact means there must have been some common interests between them.

　A thorough study of Zweig’s work reveals that the experience of ‘self-contemplation’ of Virata, the main character in the original, in the dark dungeon seems to have had much in common with each other in the paradoxical idea which Yūzō has already declared in his essay ‘Suwari’（「坐り」）in 1926. Yūzō’s accidental encounter with this work seems to have led him to reconfirm both his idea of the arts and his way of life and to amplify this idea in his later works.

　Here this translation proves to be a mirror in which his literary mind in his prosperous days is clearly reflected.