Les Mille et une Nuits que l’on connaît au Japon depuis 1875 provenaient de traductions de textes anglais, c’est-à-dire des Arabian Nights.

　Roka Tokutomi (1868–1927) a lu et a connu ces Histoires pittoresques à l’âge de 19 et 20 ans lorsqu’il était étudiant à Dôshisha. Après avoir obtenu un grand succès comme écrivain populaire, il partit en 1906 pour l’Orient, le lieu d’origine de ces histoires fableuses. Toutefois en apercevant au Caire et Jérusalem les problèmes avec lesquels ces deux pays étaient aux prises—le manque d’harmonie entre la culture classique et la moderne, les antipathies réciproques entre les Chrétiens et les Musulmans ou les Juifs, etc.—il fut pris de désespoir par ces lieux soumis aux pires contradictions et il s’est souvenu des jours anciens comme on les avait jadis décrits dans les Mille et une Nuits.

　La grande différence entre le passé glorieux et le présent décadent —c’est aussi le dilemme qui existait entre son “mirage” pour l’Orient et la réalité vécue. Ceci nous permettrait de mieux comprendre les passions (en fait il était chrétien) qui le hantaient, comme d’ailleurs ses intérêts marqués pour les questions sociales et politiques. Une telle rencontre d’expériences chez un même écrivain est très rare dans l’histoire de la littérature japonaise moderne.

　In the early stage of his literary life, Ogai Mori, who did not accept Ibsen’s dramas for their naturalistic tinge, called the Norwegian ‘that old-fashioned writer’.

　But in 1903 when he translated Brand, he showed interest in a hero who decided to concentrate on fulfilling his duties to society, expressed in ‘All or Nothing’. This idea from Brand influenced his own Nichiren-shonin Tsujizeppo (A Sermon at Roadside by Saint Nichiren). And in 1909 Ogai, first reading the works of Rilke, came to call Ibsen ‘a modern writer’, understanding Brand from the viewpoint of ‘Autonomie’.

　Ogai, in his closing stage, disagreed again with the dramatist for the destructive in his plays, though he translated A Doll's House and Ghosts. This notion about Ibsen seemed to have something to do with Ogai’s respect for and agreement with Goethe’s thought.

　Nevertheless Ogai emphasized the excellent technique of Ibsen’s dramas and stressed that they should not be evaluated from the naturalistic standpoint.

　This paper is concerned with the inspection of the reason why ‘The Blind Brother’ (Mōmōku-no-otōto 1929), the adapted drama from Arthur Schnitzler, was written and how it was composed of by Yūzō Yamamoto.

　Eight years before this adaptation was produced, he translated a fine short story of Schnitzler’s ‘Der blinde Geronimo und sein Bruder’. Though it was in his student days when he began to contact with this Austrian writer and dramatist, his real understanding of Schnitzler was formed after he passed his own literary cultivation from 1916 to 1919. There Yūzō came to regard Schnitzler’s works as the opus of humanity, which led him translate the warm-hearted story of the blind Geronimo and his brother Carlo.

　It was also then that he chanced to see Kikugorō Onoe, the actor of accomplishments, who could create the touch of humanity on the stage in those days. The collaboration of such elements as these gave Yūzō the motif to make ‘The blind Brother’. To express such humanistic atmosphere in the new drama, he set up the scenes of ‘tearing’ or ‘crying’ as a stage directions, not as the words. This way of his expression seemed to be the symbol of humanity that he is eager to depict in his literary life.

　Besides, the discussion of this adaptation should be closely considered from the humanistic mind of Yūzō that can be seen through Yūzō’s dramas and novels.

　This thesis has two main themes : one is to follow the earliest part of the process in which Sherwood Anderson’s works were introduced into Japan; the other is to understand how Anderson’s works, his view of life and of human beings, attracted a then young novelist, Shiro Ozaki, as soon as they were introduced into Japan.

　By documenting the process of Anderson’s introduction into Japan, it can clearly be seen that as early as 1921, five years after the publication of his first novel, an article appeared concerning Sherwood Anderson. During the following fifteen years, not a few articles and some translations of Sherwood Anderson’s works appeared in several magazines in Japan. Among them, Matsuo Takagaki’s articles were largest in number and brightest in contents. The first half of this thesis aims to ascertain what characteristics of Anderson’s works Takagaki tried to make known in Japan.

　In the latter half, by picking up some of Ozaki’s short stories and novels, it is to be shown how Ozaki made use of the parts of Anderson’s works most impressive to him, in forming his stories and novels and in portraying some scenes and characters in them.

　Shoyo Tsubouchi, well known as a representative translator of Shakespeare’s works and Japanese playwright encountered John Dryden through his efforts to find the best way of translating English plays into Japanese for the purpose of promoting the growth of modern Japanese drama.

　Chapter. I. Tsubouchi’s search for a way of translation

　Having translated Julius Caesar in 1882 and observing the contemporary practices of translation by Shimei Futabatei, Ogai Mori and others, Tsubouchi felt that translation methods were extremely important for the promotion of modern Japanese drama.

　Chapt. II. The influence of Dryden’s theory of translation on Tsubouchi

　Tsubouchi was an omnivorous reader. Among the many books he read, the ones which most influenced his views of translation were, Comparative Literature by Hutcheson Macaulay Posnett and the Life of Dryden by Samuel Johnson. Tsubouchi learned what comparative literature was through reading the former and found what for him was the most suitable way of translation in the latter. Through the Life of Dryden, he came to understand Dryden’s theory of translation. He was now able to include his view of translation into his lecture entitled, Hisho Bungaku, by which title he meant comparative literature. In this lecture he quotes some passages from the Life of Dryden on how translation should be done and from Dryden’s Preface on Translation prefixed to the Second Miscellany, the kind of mind required in a translator.

　Chapt. III. Dryden’s theory of translation

　Dryden identified three ways of translation; namely, metaphrase, paraphrase and imitation in his Preface to The Translation of Ovid’s Epistles. But among these three ways in his Dedication of the Aeneis, he endeavours to persuade a translator to take the way of paraphrase. Indeed, he himself translated Virgil’s Aeneid into English by way of paraphrase.

　Chapt. IV. Tsubouchi’s encounter with Dryden

　I conclude my essay by describing Tsubouchi as being an adherent of Dryden’s theory of translation. Tsubouchi translated Hamlet into Japanese by the paraphrase method following closely Dryden’s way of translating the Aeneid.

　Commodore Perry visited Lew Chew five times during the year 1853 and -54. It is very interesting for us present-day Lew Chewans (Okinawans) to think how the then Lew Chewan Government and her people dealt with this foreign envoy from the most powerful country in the world. The Lew Chewan authorities received Perry and his suite very cordially and wisely, and fortunately they could ride over what was called a national crisis.

　After he went back home, Commodore Perry published in 1856 three bulky volumes entitled “Narrative of the Expedition of an American squadron to the China Seas and Japan” In the first volume he wrote about Lew Chew in detail including many pictures drawn by two American artists.

　The present writer is going to write how the compact between the Kingdom of Lew Chew and the United States of America was concluded, referring to the Perry’s books and the Lew Chewan history.

　The conversation between the two parties was carried on in the Chinese language between Ichirazichi of the Lew Chewan Government and Dr. Wells Williams on behalf of Commodore Perry. The former was a young Lew Chewan who was educated in Peking for several years, and the latter was a noted American scholar on Chinese literature who lived in Macao for many years. These two men conducted their conversation in Chinese first and then they translated it into their own language, English or Lew Chewan for the purpose of conveying the meaning of it to their respective party.

　No sooner had Perry arrived in Lew Chew than he dispatched an inland exploration party which consisted of 12 men through the interior of Great Lew Chew (=Okinawa), headed by geologist Jones. Bayard Taylor was among the party and he acted as a keeper of records. Taylor was a correspondent of the New York Tribune. He was famous as a world traveler. He wrote many traveling accounts and poems. It is a surprising fact that such an outstanding American author as Taylor came over to Okinawa on Board the Perry’s squadron more than a century ago and wrote so fascinating accounts about Okinawa. The writer introduces a certain part of Taylor’s accounts which he wrote during his traveling on foot through the interior of Lew Chew. The writer also introduces Heine and Brown who were both artists and took part in the exploration party. They drew many beautiful landscapes in Lew Chew and some portraits of high officials of the Lew Chewan Government.

　After World War II came to an end, the United States of America governed the Ryukyu Islands under high commissioner. The successive commissioners made efforts to keep the traditional cordial relations between the Ryukyus and the United States. High Commissioner Caraway erected Commodore Perry’s landing monument near Tomari harbor with the native people. The inscription of the monument “Prosperity to the Lew Chewans and may they and the Americans always be friends.” was a part of Perry’s address he made at the official banquet sponsored by the Government of Lew Chew on June 6,1853.

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