＜ドナルド・キーンが描いた日本――生誕100年に＞／２８ インドの珍道中を経て舞台はニューヨークへ
From Bangkok I flew to Madras, and from there took the train to Madurai at the southern tip of the Indian peninsula, where I met Faubion Bowers and his wife Santha Rama Rau. I had met them the previous year in Tokyo, where Bowers had been gathering material for a book on Asian drama. He had served with the Occupation army as General MacArthur's interpreter and later had been placed in charge of Kabuki. The Kabuki actors, with whom he had maintained close relations, thought of him as a great benefactor, not only because he had saved Kabuki during the critical period of the postwar years, when it was in danger of becoming denatured or even being abandoned, but because he personally had provided the actors with needed medicines and other scarce items. Through Bowers I had met Koshiro, Utaemon, Baiko and other leading actors. His wife, a distinguished writer, was Indian, but absolutely international in her outlook and her wit. Bowers had suggested that the three of us drive all the way up the east coast of India from Madurai to Konarak.
The journey was exhausting because of the extreme heat. At one miserable town where we had to spend the night waiting for the early morning ferry, the temperature was close to 45 degrees. But we enjoyed each other's company so much that the heat only made us laugh hysterically and provoke us into flights of fantasy.
[MEETING WITH JAPAN]
インドの夏がいかに暑いか。セ氏45度は、かなり体に応えただろう。しかも、かなりの珍道中だったらしい。もう一つの自伝によると。
The low point of the journey occurred at a place called Guntur. We arrived too late for the last ferry over the river and had to spend the night at a guesthouse whose facilities were primitive. There was no restaurant, but a man offered to buy some food for us. He came back with a can of meat, a can of cream, and a can of milk. Somehow, instead of annoying us, everything contributed to our gaiety. We composed the libretto of a Wagnerian opera about Guntur. We laughed as though we were quite drunk, though we hadn't touched a drop.
[On Familiar Terms]
何ごとも前向きに、陽気に考えるキーンさんらしい。インドの珍事をオペラに仕立てる遊び心。作品は残念ながら伝わっていないが、巨大な文明圏であるインドへの関心は、晩年まで続くことになる。
インドからロンドンに向かい、ケンブリッジでの残務を終えた後、キーンさんはニューヨークへ戻り、コロンビア大学助教授となった。55年秋のことである。日本文学を教える学者としての生活が復活した。先に戻っていたバワーズ夫妻とは頻繁に会い、その友人を介して、さらに幅広い人たちとの出会いも生まれた。この後、ニューヨークを本拠とした生活が半世紀以上にわたって続くことになる。世界中の文化が集まる生活を楽しんだようだ。
After I returned to New York in September I saw them almost every day. If they were invited to a party they invariably asked permission to bring me along, and they never bought theatre tickets without buying one for me too. They seemed an ideal couple. He was full of enthusiasm, passionately devoted to his friends, and moved always by generous impulses. Santha was beautiful, marvelously intelligent, and full of a sense of fun. Even though we met almost every day there were always so many things to talk about that it was hard to say goodbye.
（中略）
Thanks to Mr. and Mrs. Bowers my first two years of teaching at Columbia were happy, and New York, though I had dreaded returning, seemed the most exciting place in the world. I had by no means forgotten Kyoto, but just as my life in Japan had opened up elements within myself I had not suspected, my life in New York gave me confidence in my ability to mix on equal terms with celebrated people.
In Japan I had sometimes wondered if the readiness with which famous authors consented to meeting me had not been occasioned in part by curiosity about any foreigner -- not necessarily myself -- who spoke Japanese, and this uncertainty had made it difficult to decide if in fact I was interesting as a social acquaintance. But now I had ample opportunity to test myself with celebrities not predisposed in my favor.
Through Bowers and his close friend John Gunther I met an extraordinary variety of people -- writers, musicians, ballet dancers, actors, political experts, members of European royalty. With a few exceptions these acquaintances did not develop into friends, but this did not matter. I had not only engaged in conversation with Greta Garbo, my idol from childhood, but had even taken her to the theatre. I had discussed music with Leopold Stokowski, poetry with W.H. Auden, and Sanskrit literature with the great physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer. I discovered that I could amuse even sophisticated people, and I was delighted to be the only professor ever invited to these gatherings. I now have absolutely no desire to return to that social world again, but I am grateful for those two years. They softened the pain of leaving Japan.
[MEETING WITH JAPAN]
もう一つの自伝には、こうも書いている。
The daily routine of my university teaching was of course less exciting than the nightlife, but it gave me pleasure to think how little my students could have suspected that the professor with whom they laboriously read Japanese texts on Tuesdays and Thursdays had conversed the previous evening with Garbo.
[On Familiar Terms]
よほど、得意だったのだろう。スウェーデンで1905年に生まれたグレタ・ガルボは、サイレント映画全盛期の名女優。しかし、35歳で引退し、その後は米国籍をとってニューヨークに住んでいた。当時は50歳だったが、まだまだ美しかった。少年時代のアイドルだったガルボと一緒に芝居を見たという経験は、キーンさんにとって一生忘れがたい、ハレの出来事だったに違いない。
ニューヨークを舞台に、キーンさんの人脈は、多彩に広がっていった。
＝次回4月11日にアップ予定
◇
日本文学者のドナルド・キーンさん（1922年生まれ）は、18歳の時に「The Tale of Genji(源氏物語)」と出会い、96歳で亡くなるまで、日本の文学や文化の魅力を伝えることに没頭し、膨大な研究成果を発表し続けた。日本の「大恩人」はどんな時代を生き、私たちに何を伝え、未来に何を残そうとしたのか。本人の英文や、2022年4月に創刊100年を迎えた英字「The Mainichi」の紙面とともに、この1世紀の時空を旅する。
（文・森忠彦＝毎日新聞記者、ドナルド・キーン記念財団理事。キーンさんの原文は同財団から掲載の許可を得ています。財団HP＝https://www.donaldkeene.org/）
◇
Donald Keene（ドナルド・キーン）
1922年6月18日、米ニューヨーク市ブルックリン地区生まれ。日本文学研究者。コロンビア大学名誉教授。コロンビア大学大学院、ケンブリッジ大学研究員を経て53年から京都大学大学院に留学。谷崎潤一郎、川端康成、三島由紀夫などの文人と交流した。半世紀以上にわたって日米を行き来しながら、日本の文学、文化の研究を続け、その魅力を英文で世界へと発信した。2008年には文化勲章を受章。11年の東日本大震災の直後に、日本国籍を取得。雅号は「鬼怒鳴門」。2019年2月24日、96歳で永眠。主な著書に「日本文学の歴史」「百代の過客」「Emperor of Japan: Meiji and His World, 1852-1912」（邦訳「明治天皇」）など。