Japan Spirit and Sakura 桜と大和魂

新渡戸稲造 Inazo Nitobe『武士道』Bushido
「武士道の感化」The Influence of Bushido
訳：櫻井鴎村




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Motoori has put the mute utterance of the nation into words when he sings:

本居宣長は、我国民が不言の言を歌ひて曰く、

"Isles of blest Japan
 Should your Yamato spirit
 Strangers seek to scan,
 Say, scenting morn's sun-lit air,
 Blows the cherry wild and fair"

敷島の大和心を人 問はば
朝日ににほふ山桜花



Yes, the sakura has for ages been the favorite of our people and the emblem of our character.

然り桜は古来我国民の愛玩せる花にして、又た我国民性格の儀型なり。

Mark particularly the terms of definition which the poet uses, the words the wild cherry flower scenting the morning sun.

而して思へ、歌人の特に「朝日に匂ふ山桜花」と曰へる所以のものを。

The Yamato spirit is not a tame, tender plant, but a wild -in the sense of natural- growth;

山桜花は馴雅婉変たる花に非ずして、野生を帯び自然なり。

it is indigenous to the soil;

我国土の特産なり。

its accidental qualities it may share with the flowers of other lands, but in its essence it remains the original, spontaneous outgrowth of our clime.

其偶有性は之を他郷土の花と斉しうするものありと雖、其本質は依然として我国土に自発自生す。

But its nativity is not its sole claim to our affection.

されど其国産たるが故にのみ、吾人の之を愛好するに非らず。

The refinement and grace of its beauty appeal to our aesthetic sense as no other flower can.

其高雅優麗にして日本国民の美徳を動かすの大なるは、高く群芳に絶す。








We cannot share the admiration of the Europeans for their roses, which lack the simplicity of our flower.

吾人は欧州人と共に薔薇を翫賞する能はず。其花や、我国華の単純なるに似ず。

Then, too, the thorns that are hidden beneath the sweetness of the rose, the tenacity with which she clings to life,as though loth or afraid to die rather than drop untimely, preferring to rot on her stem.

而も亦た薔薇の窈窕として其陰に刺針を蔵する、風前に脆く散じて泥汗に委せんことを厭悪し、畏懼し、頑として寧ろ枝頭に腐死せんことを欲する。







Her showy colors and heavy odors -all those are traits so unlike our flower, which carries no dagger or poison under its beauty, which is ever ready to depart life at the call of nature, whose colors are never gorgeous, and whose light fragrance never palls.

又た其色妖冶、其香濃厚なる此等の特質は大いに之を我桜花と其趣を異にす。桜の佳美なるは、毒を蓄へず刃を潜めず、且つ自然の招呼に応じ 欣然として飄落し、又た其姿色太だ華麗ならず。其清香は淡として、遥かに薔薇の人を厭かしむると同じからず。

Beauty of colors and of form is limited in its showing; it is a fixed quality of existence, whereas fragrance is volatile, ethereal as the breathing of life.

形容色彩の美は、花弁の外観を成すに止まりて、其存在に伴ふ常質なり。然るに其芬芳は生命の気息の如くに軽浮す。

So in all religious ceremonies frankincense and myrrh play a prominent part.

故に凡百の宗教に於て、乳香、没薬は主なる儀式を成せり。

There is something spirituelle in redolence.

馨香は清浄聖潔なるものを有す。



When the delicious perfume of the sakura quickens the morning air, as the sun in its course rises to illumine first the isles of the Far East, few sensations are more serenely exhilarating than to inhale, as it were, the very breath of beauteous day.

旭日波を破り、絶東の島嶼初めて紅光を浴び、桜花絢熳、暁風に開くの時、徐に此の美しき日の其気息を吸尽せん乎、胸懐浩々、自から清澄爽快なるものあり。即ち何者の情感か、能く之に儔ひするを得べけんや。



When the Creator himself is pictured as making new resolutions in his heart upon smelling a sweet savor (Gen. Ⅷ, 21), is it any wonder that the sweet-smelling season of the cherry blossom should call forth the whole nation from their little habitations?

創物主すらもノアの捧ぐる馨しき香を開きて、又た地を咀ふことをなさじとの新たなる決心を起こしたりと記されたるを以て見れば（創世記八章二十一節）、桜花陽春の天に薫ずるや、我が全土の民衆をを招いて、茅屋の外に徜徉せしむること、何ぞ異むに足らんや。

Blame them not, if for a time their limbs forget their toil and moil and their hearts their pangs and sorrows.

此時四肢は労役を忘れ、心は悲哀に遠かるとも、何ぞ咎めん。

Their brief pleasure ended, they return to their daily tasks with new strength and new resolutions.

一瞬の快楽尽くるや、彼等は復た新力、新意を提げて、日常の業に還る。



Thus in ways more than one is the sakura the flower of the nation.

此れに由って観るも亦た、桜花は実に日本の花なり。

Is, then, this flower, so sweet and evanescent, blown whithersoever the wind listeth, and, shedding a puff of perfume, ready to vanish forever.

然るに妍葩麗蕋、飄々として春風に舞ひ、一道の清香吹いて未だ幾何ならず。忽爾として消散するの斯花や。

 Is this flower the type of the Yamato spirit?

桜花は果たして日本精神の儀表なる乎。

Is the Soul of Japan so frailly mortal?

大和魂は斯花と其開謝を同じくするものなる乎。


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