著者

西野 常夫

出版者

九州大学

雑誌

Comparatio (ISSN:13474286)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.5, pp.lxxxii-xc, 2001

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The high frequency in use without apparent reason of the fatalistic affirmation "it was certain that…" in Akutagawa's late autobiographical short stories "Cogwheels" and "A fool's life" makes the writer's style very unique and can even confuse the reader. The difficulty in understanding possible reasons for his use of this affirmation are more explicit in English, French and Russian versions, where the translators often seem to give up the idea of preserving the meaning of this expression and simply eliminate it. In the foreign versions, as a result, Akutagawa's style is more moderate and less fatalistic than in the Japanese original.