Ōe Kenzaburō ’s Reception of Fukase Motohiro’s Translation of W. H. Auden’s Collected Shorter Poems:

Auden as the Source of Ōe’s “Politics and Sex”

Abstract

　Ōe Kenzaburō frequently mentions how deeply he has been influenced by Fukase Motohiro’s translation of W. H. Auden’s Collected Shorter Poems. Previous studies, however, have not adequately examined the contribution these poems have made to the style of Ōe’s novels. The present study addresses the impact of Auden’s poetic language on Ōe’s early career as a writer.　Fukase defines the inseparable unity of political and psychological concerns as the central element of Auden’s poetry. He emphasizes that Auden’s language is characterized by a metaphysical style taken from T. S. Eliot and by the sexually explicit language of D. H. Lawrence. Ōe seems to understand Auden’s works in the same manner. Yet, unlike Fukase, Ōe gives privileged status to the poem “Leap Before You Look.” He especially values the way its description alternates between political and psychological senses, and this original interpretation of the dual structure of Auden’s poetry he applies to postwar Japan. This study examines Auden’s influence on what Ōe calls the “politics and sex” in his own novels, with particular attention to how his important early novel Shiiku (Prize Stock) is indebted to Auden’s techniques of expression.