Kochô BABA (1869〜1940), homme de lettres, professeur à l’université Keiô, s’était consacré aux traductions des littératures occidentales.

　Je me borne d’abord à considerer sa traduction des œuvres d’Alphonse DAUDET (1840〜1897). Kochô a soutenu à plusieurs reprises qu’on ne peut jamais faire la traduction et qu’on explique seulement des phrases plus en détail. Pourtant il était essentiellement traducteur. Quant à Alphonse DAUDET, Kochô a fait la traduction abrégée des œuvres suivantes ; “Les femmes d’artiste”， “Souvenir d’un homme de lettres,” “Légende de l’homme à la cervelle d’or” etc..

　Puis j’étudie ici la raison pour laquelle Kochô a fait des traductions des œuvres d’Alphonse DAUDET. La relation entre Kochô et son frère, Tatsui (1850～1888), homme politique, critique, était, me semble-t-il, celle d’Alphonse avec son frère Ernest. M’étant mis donc à l’étude des phrases de Kochô touchant ce sujet, j’en arrive à la conclusion que Kochô n’a pas pris intérêt à l’amour fraternel vu dans l’œuvre autobiographique d’Alphonse DAUDET, “Le Petit Chose”，ainsi que ses deux écrivains contemporains, Syûseî TOKUDA et Katai TAYAMA, l’étaient, et il a écrit quelques articles sur Alphonse DAUDET et a traduit ses œuvres, éprouvant la communauté de son tempérament avec le sien.

　Insiste Junji Kinoshita en que la dramática es una manera de pensar basada en el materialismo dialéctico histórico, que el drama como la historia se desarrolla por el conflicto entre dos fuerzas antagónicas. La formación del drama la considera igual a la de la historia.

　Además, definiendo los cuentos populares como una expresión de la resistencia del pueblo contra el poder feudal, escribe “Sankaku Boshi diciendo que en él encuentra el conflicto entre la fuerza del pueblo (lo erótico de Frasquita) y el poder del Corregidor, y que refleja una resistencia más fuerte que las resistencias del pueblo japonés.

　Observando, sin embargo, los romances españoles de “El Molinero de Arcos” o “El Corregidor y la Molinera”, no es cierto que se halle el tema de la resistencia sino hay el tema del infidelidad matrimonial difundido por toda Europa.

　Es muy dudable que se puedan definir los cuentos populares como una expresión de la resistencia del pueblo.

　En consecuencia, las obras teatrales que Kinoshita adaptó de los cuentos populares, no dramatizan los temas que existen en los cuentos, sino que dramatizan de manera popular los temas inventados por él mismo basándose en el materialismo dialéctico histórico.

(A) “Sono Irodori Tōkino Koeki”（in 4 Acts) by Tomisaburo Sahashi, an adaptation play based upon the story of the life of a celebrated French potter and enameler, Bernard Palissy (1510-1589), described in Book III，chapt. 2, of “The Saikoku Risshihen” translated by Masanao Nakamura (the Original,“Self-Help” (1859)) by Samuel Smiles).

(B) “Kutsunaoshi Waranbeno Oshie” (in 3 Acts) by Tomisaburo Sahashi, an adaptation play also based upon the story of the life of a cobbler John Pounds in Portsmouth, England, described in chapt. 9，Book XII，of “The Saikoku Risshihen” translated by the same translator Masanao Nakamura (the Original, “Self-Help” (1859) by Samuel Smiles).

　In both plays the adaptor Sahashi leaves the names of the chief characters unchanged in his plays, but he invented various scenes so as to be fitted for the Japanese audience to understand the plots of the drama; for example, the foreign style of costumes of the characters sometimes seems very incongruous and funny in the interior of the half-Japanese stage. But, on the whole, these adaptations were said to be successful when they were on the stage in Kyoto. It is due to the fact that he succeeded to make these adaptations very interesting by adding some episodes to the stories told in the original texts; in short, he studied some strange episodes in the real lives of the two heroes and added them to the process of the plots of the plays.

　At all events, these plays were the first and successful adaptation plays which enlightened the Japanese minds in the dawn of Meiji Era.

　It was said by Professor Seiichi Yoshida that “Le Parnasse Ambulant”，published by Ōgai Mori (1862-1922) in June,1910, might have relation to “L’Ile des Pingouins” (1908), written by Anatole France (1844-1924). As a result of my comparative study of the two works (although it cannot be proven conclusively or absolutely), the unique style of satire in the former work seems to have been more or less influenced by the latter one. This may also be seen through the ideas expressed in “The Tower of Silence”(1910), written by Ōgai and Ryūnosuke Akutagawa’s “MENSURA ZOILI” (1917), which was directly influenced by “The Tower of Silence”.

　There is some direct relation between Ōgai and Anatole France, that can be proven, however. For example, the first of France’s works introduced in Japan, known as “Hachi Hime” in Japanese, was introduced by Ōgai Mori. It thus seems impossible that Ōgai would not have known one of France’s most representative works, “L’ Ile des Pingouins”.

　“The Tower of Silence”，which was influenced to some degree by “L’Ile des Pingouins”，shows similar ideas as the essay “Ism of Literary Arts” written by Ōgai in the same period. I cannot but compare the political similarity of the times, for France wrote “L’Ile des Pingouins”， after the Dreyfus case rocked his country, while Ōgai wrote “The Tower of Silence” at the same time as the Kōtoku affair, a high treason case, was being tried in 1910, when it was not permitted to joke about or satirize the Japanese government.