著者

須藤 圭

出版者

国文学研究資料館

雑誌

国際日本文学研究集会会議録 = PROCEEDINGS OF INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON JAPANESE LITERATURE (ISSN:03877280)

巻号頁・発行日

no.39, pp.23-38, 2016-03-17

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The phrase “Onna ni te miru” appears in several volumes of The Tale of Genji. It is said to mean either “to look at a man as if he were a woman” or “to look at a man as if one were a woman.” In this presentation, I call into question the gender bias underlying the act of translation by examining the ways in which the phrase “Onna ni te miru” has been translated. The phrase “Onna ni te miru” has already been thoroughly investigated.Yoshikai Naoto’s “ ‘Onna ni te miru’ to kōzokubi (‘Onna ni te miru’ and Royal Beauty)” (Genji Monogatari no shinkōsatsu: ningen to hyōgen no kyojitsu (A New Investigation of The Tale of Genji: The Truth and Falsehood of Humanity and Expression), Ohfu, 2003) insists that the meaning of “Onna ni te miru” is simply to look on a man as a woman. In response to this, Royall Tyler’s “Dansei no imēji o oou josei no Beēru (A Female Veil that Covers the Image of a Man)” (Kōza Genji Monogatari Kenkyū 11 (Lectures on The Tale of Genji Studies 11) Kaigai ni okeru Genji Monogatari (The Tale of Genji Overseas), Ohfu, 2008) points out the difficulty of comprehending the hidden meanings in the motif of a man putting on a “female veil” based on the authors’ own experiences with English translation.However, the question of what form the phrase “Onna ni te miru” takes in English translation, for instance, has never been discussed. In translating “Onna ni te miru,” there are more options than simply “to look at a man as if he were a woman” or “to look at a man as if one were a woman.” It is sometimes translated as “to look like a woman” while maintaining male gender, or as “it would have been better if their genders were switched.” “Onna ni te miru” has been translated in numerous, varied ways.In this presentation, I will examine the roles the phrase “Onna ni te miru” has taken and the meanings it has assumed in various contexts including modern Japanese translations as well as multiple translations into foreign languages. By doing so, I will question the act of translation itself and attempt to investigate gender differences between Japanese and foreign languages as well as those between the Heian Period and today.