Dickinsの英訳 『百人一首』

抄録

In Japanese Poetry: The Uta (1919) Arthur Waley says, “It is chiefly through translations of another anthology, the Hyakunin-Isshu, that Japanese poetry is known to English readers. This collection of a ‘Hundred Poems by a Hundred Poets’ was made in c. 1235 A. D. ”This shows that the HyakuninIs'shu was already known to English readers in 1919.
Earlier, in 1866, F. V. Dickins rendered it into English, the HYAK NIN IS'SHIU, JAPANESE LYRICAL ODES. Frederick Victor Dickins (1823-1915) was a medical officer in the British Navy and was stationed in Yokohama from 1861 to 1866. He learned the Japanese language of his personal interest. Returning to England, he published the HYAK NIN IS'SHIU.
“... whatever their intrinsic value may be, they (Hyakunin-Isshu) are extremely popular with the Japanese, and on that account, rather than for any literary merit they may possess, have I ventured to offer this English version of them to the public”, says F. V. Dickins in the preface to the HYAK NIN IS'SHU. These lines show his unfavorable view about the Odes. English Japanologists, like Chamberlain, Aston and Waley as well as Dickins, did not think highly of the Hyakunin-Isshu. Dickins introduced the poems to English readers because of their popularity among the Japanese.
From 1866 on F. V. Dickins' translation was printed four times in Japan. Since F. V. Dickins, the Hyakunin-Isshu has had seven translators: C. MacCauley, W. N. Porter, H. Saito, K. Yasuda, H. Honda, H. Miyata and Tom Galt. F. V. Dickins was the starting runner and the first pioneer in the translation of the Hyakunin-Isshu and Japanese poetry.