“ Essay on Dante ” (Dante ni tsuite) was written by Hakuchô Masamune in February, 1927 (in the Chuô Kôron or “Central Review”) and Hakuchô’s view of Dante is contained in this essay.

　He had deep interest in Dante’s “ Divine Comedy ” since he heard a lecture “ Dante and Göeth” by Kanzo Uchimura. Then he read Cary’s translation “ Vision of Dante ” in his school days.

　When he was twenty-seven years old，he wrote an essay “ On Dante ” in a magazine for schoolboys named Chûgaku Sekai. This essay was a prototype of his “ Essay on Dante ” of 1927.

　Between these two essays, from 1905 to 1927, he had literary evolution. He had been called a writer of naturalism, but his literary thought is romantic rather than naturalistic.

　Always his literary technique is realistic, but his fancy is sort of eschatological. Because, his deep concern is in Revelation, the last chapter of the Bible.

　Thus he read “ Divine Comedy ”, as eschatology, too.

　According to his view of life, our life is one of the human dramas pointing to Revelation.

　There are two sources of his literary spirits, the last judgement of God’s will and the human drama.

　The former became his realistic novel and the latter his fantastic literary thought.

　Au mois d’août 1961, j’ai donné un Essai sur “La Grenouille” au tome I des Etudes Françaises publiées par la Société d’Etudes Françaises (dont je suis le président) à l’Université des Langues Etrangères d’Osaka. Parmi les oeuvres européennes traduites en japonais par le grand écrivain et traducteur Mori OGAÏ (1862-1922), il y a un seul conte provençal, La Grenouille de Narbonne de Frédéric Mistral. Cette traduction a été publiée dans la revue Waréra (Nous) au mois de juillet 1914 et, cinq ans plus tard, mise en tête d’un recueil de traductions faites par Ogaï. Cette fois elle a eu le titre simplifié de Kaérou (Grenouille) et le livre lui-même a été nommé Kaérou.

　Dans mon dernier essai, j’ai comparé le texte original avec l’oeuvre en japonais, montré les grandes différences entre les deux, cherché l’édition du texte qu’Ogaï avait pris pour sa traduction. J’ai aussi étudié quelle signification a cette petite oeuvre dans la longue carrière de traducteur et d’écrivain d’Ogaï et j’ai conclu que la traduction de La Grenouille de Narbonne est l’oeuvre allégorique qui met le point final à la vie littéraire de l’écrivain japonais.

　Les Etudes Françaises est une revue de tirage très limité. Et tout de suite après la publication de ce numéro, je suis parti pour Bordeaux en vue d’assister et faire une communication au Congrès international de langue et littérature d’oc. Les voyages en France et les investigations ultérieures m’ont fait trouver des erreurs et des imperfections dans mon essai. Dans ce deuxième essai, je ne répète pas en détail et omets ou simplifie ce que j’ai dit précédemment et que je trouve juste ou exact même maintenant. D’autre part, je retouche quelques parties et ajoute des choses nécessaires à mon essai original.

　The author here does not intend to discuss the problem of a literary genre that is called an essay, or that of comparative literature in a narrow sense which does not treat the interpretation of literary works. The aim of the present thesis is to compare in parallel and probe the essence of each work principally through the conception and expression of travel such as seen in the chapters of Of Travel, De La Vanité, and at the same time to consider how Bacon received or interpreted Montaigne’s Essais in writing his Essays. It may be safely said that each writer’s idea of travelling does symbolize his attitude toward life as well as the character of his work. With Bacon the purpose of travel, or his own career is “ in a short time to gather much ” knowledge which is new and correct, while Montaigne travels for travel’s sake, expecting nothing from it and feels the vanity of human existence, The former lacking the latter’s flexibility, ease and freedom both in thought and style, and what is more, misunderstanding or interpreting in another way the original meaning of Essais, it is really not Bacon, as E. Gosse declares, who first introduced the true spirit of Montaigne into England.

　It is extremely difficult to find good definitions for the terms ‘classical’ and ‘ romantic.’ Various attempts have been made by students of literature not only in England and America but in continental countries to give them a precise and exact definition, but none of them, it may be safely said, has given us a satisfying one. This definition is still now lingering in the minds of those interested in literary theory.　

　In the Macmillan’s Magazine for November, 1876, Walter Pater (1839-94) contributed one essay entitled “ Romanticism ” which, afterwards, in 188 pages, was collected in Appreciations, with an essay on style , with the title, “Postscript.” Though “Romanticism” was the original title, Pater, as might be expected of an elaborate scholar, tried to make a formula both for the romantic and the classic. For it was to French literature in the romantic period that he owed most of his materials as well as his fundamental postulate ; his theoretical principles should be studied with the aid of the method of comparative literature.

　The postulate with which he completed his theory is nothing but that of l’art-pour-l’art, the principle first set forth by Gautier ; so Beauty is the first and last concern to which he paid greatest attention. This means he is really the follower of the French romantic school. As for materials with which he developed his theory, Sainte-Beuve and Stendahl played the greatest rôle ; Rousseau, Hugo and Gautier took a large part. Besides, Madame de Staël, Quinet, Senancour, Chateaubriand, Balzac, Murger and Bertrand offered him lots of materials.

　Some men of letters and their works in his own country and Germany had influenced Pater, but compared with those of France they seem to be much less and shallower. And, as I am sure that his main sources lie in French literature of the romantic period, I have tried to make out my case in this essay.

　Bertolt Brecht schrieb 1930 ein kleines Lehrstück, “ Der Jasager und Der Neinsager ”, mit dem Zusatz : “ Nach dem japanischen Stück »Taniko«, in der englischen Nachdichtung von Arthur Waley ”. Brecht hat die Bearbeitungen mehrerer ausländischen Stücken gemacht, insbesondere haben auf orientalische Dramen großen Einfluß gehabt. Darunter sind die chinesischen Stücken am wichtigsten für ihn. Von japanischen nahm er nur das Nô-Spiel “Taniko ” auf. Wie benutzte aber Brecht, ein Marxist und Realist, dieses japanischeigenartige und mystische Nô-Spiel, das in mittelalterlichen Japanisch geschrieben ist und auf buddhistischen Gedanken gründet ? Hier vergleiche ich Brechts Drama mit dem originalen Nô-Spiel und der englischen Übersetzung von Waley. Dieser übersetzte Nô-Spiel in sehr einfache moderne Englisch, und liess den schwer zu übersetztenden Teil aus, kürzte sogar den letzten Teil, der eigentlich für die Nô-Spielkunst sehr wichtig ist, und erklärte darüber nur in einer Bemerkung. Von dieser Waley’schen Übersetzung unabhängig entwickelt Brecht sein eigenes Motiv. “ Der Neinsager ” vertritt hier seine Lehre, “ Der Jasager ”―das heißt “Taniko”―ist nur die negative Vermittelung. So benutzte Brecht dialektisch den Inhalt des alt-japanischen Nô-Spiels und dessen epische Form, während das Nô-Spiel auf englische Imaginisten eine innere Einwirkung ausgeübt hat.

　Our Kojiki and Manyôshû are still loved and quoted by the people in Japan, while the old Irish myths and legends live in modern literary work such as “ At The Hawk’s Well ”，written by William Butler Yeats (1865-1939).

　When I found real close relation between, or rather the same elements in, these two streams of literature, Japanese and Irish, I started to prosecute my studies on a racial migration of ancient tribes from the steppes in Middle Asia, from where they must have brought their myths and legends into their new lands, the island which later formed a part of the so-called “Celtic Myths and Legends ”.

　Besides, there were roads westward from Mesopotamia through the Mediterranean Sea, and also the northern regions, to Ireland, and eastward the Silk Road, the Steppe Road and some southerly courses as far as Japan, through which I could trace the footsteps of primitive thought in agricultural, and the bronze and iron ages.

　Thus, evidently, it is impossible to exaggerate the existence of the true relation especially between the Izumo Legend in Kojiki, Manyôshû and Ulster, Oisin Legends in Irish Literature, some old elements in them being revived in “ At The Hawk’s Well ”.