明治翻訳史の一断面

―大和田建樹を中心として―

抄録

　It is commonly known that the New Style Poetry of the Meiji Era, called ‘ Shintaishi ’ in Japanese, started under the influence of Western Poetry. In point of style and metre, the translation poems of the Early Meiji Era seem to have given examples for the New Style Poetry. Ōwada’s Ōbeimeikashishū (Selected Poems from Famous Western Authors) published in 1894, is especially considered to be among those examples by the later Meiji poets, though there are some other previous works, such as Shintaishishō (Selections from New Style Poetry) translated by Inoue, Takayama and Yatabe.

　In Ōbeimeikashishū Ōwada translated more than one hundred Western poems into Japanese in seven-and-five syllable metre verse, just as Inoue and two others had done in their Shintaishishō. But his selection of seven-and-five syllable metre in his translation was the result of deliberate consideration and experiments of the translator, not because of his imitative instinct. Ōwada composed various styles of poems previous to his Ōbei- meikashishū and found seven-and-five syllable metre fittest for the New Style Poetry.

　Thus after many experiments by such translators, as Ōwada, the form of the New Style Poems of the Meiji Era was established, which was brought to its perfection by such poets as Shimazaki Tōson and Tsuchii. Bansui