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(★)(宮沢賢治選集)(Translated by John Bester)(The work of Kenji Miyazawa, who died forty years ago, bears the unmistakable stamp of genius. And the tales that he wrote ostensibly for children belong to that select group of minor classics that appeal to young and old alike all over the globe.／ The world he creates, like all original creations, is strange and new, yet oddly familiar. The creatures that are immediately recognizable. Miyazawa has an Aesop-like gift for singling out human foibles and embodying them in memorable characters.／ In his stories the bare stage of the fable is adorned with backgrounds of rich beauty. The vibrantly alive, almost animistic world of nature that Miyazawa depicts--the hills and valleys, the silvery autumn plains, the snowstorms of winter--belong to the northern district of Japan where he lived. Yet the effect is of a whole, pulsing universe, and his responses to it are those of any man, anywhere, who has not lost his sensitivity to the world about him.／ The skill in scene painting is matched by a wonderful gift for storytelling. The mood ranges from the satirical to the intensely lyrical, from the lightly sentimental to the slightly heartless. Yet even when they are occasionally heartless, Miyazawa´s stories are bathed in a light that excludes any hints of a nordic cruelty and shadow.／ Kenji Miyazawa, the writer of ´children´s´ tales, was a man of experience and compassion. The innocence of ´A Stem of Lilies´ and ´Kenju´ is the innocence of a mature adult --as the near-tragic little comedy called ´Earthgod and the Fox´ shows so well. It is the combination of a childlike innocence and poetry with basic human themes that has given Miyazawa his lasting appeal among children and adults alike in his own country.／ This collection of the best of his work will surely bring him the same kind of recognition in the West and at the same time establish his position as one of the most approachable figures in Japanese literature.／ ◆Kenji Miyazawa´s need for creative expression is apparent from even a cursory glance at his life. Born in 1896 in Iwate Prefecture, one of the northernmost prefectures of Japan and a land of heavy snows and barren soil, Miyazawa devoted a great part of his life to agronomy and teaching in his native district.／ During his high-school years, he studied Zen Buddhism, and was to carry a copy of the Lotus Sutra with him for the rest of his life. Around this time, he also began to write poetry.／ Three years after graduation from agricultural college, he went to Tokyo with the aim of making writing his profession, but returned nine months later, upon hearing of his sister´s illness. After her death the following year, he traveled extensively around northern Japan, then accepted a teaching position in his home town. He subsequently made numerous trips to Tokyo, but Iwate Prefecture remained his home. During his Tokyo sojourns, he became intimate with noted authors and artists of the time, and published children´s stories, essays, and poetry in a number of magazines.／ In Iwate, he organized a children´s club and held record concerts. He became interested in the organ and cello, trying to teach himself but subsequently coming to Tokyo for lessons in these two instruments, as well as in Esperanto and typing.／ Miyazawa´s days at home were devoted to using his background in agronomy to instruct and help the local farmers, while at night he practiced his music and wrote. When his health failed in 1929, he was bedridden for a year, during which interval he devoted his time to poetry. Shortly thereafter, he started studying mathematics and, in 1933, calligraphy. he died of tuberculosis in September, 1933.／ ▼CONTENTS／ ●The Dahlias and the Crane ●Earthgod and the Fox ●The Bears of Mt. Nametoko ●The Spider, the Slug, and the Raccoon ●A Stem of Lilies ●The Restaurant of Many Orders ●General Son Ba-yu and the Three Physicians ●The Ungrateful Rat ●The Nighthawk Star ●Wildcat and the Acorns ●The Fire Stone ●Night of the Festival ●The First Deer Dance ●Gorsh the Cellist ●The Kenju Wood ●The Red Blanket) |
BASE de DATOS, Biblioteca del Centro Cultural de la Embajada de Japon
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