Sec. 3 三
To comprehend the Japanese smile, one must be able to enter a little into the ancient, natural, and popular life of Japan. From the modernised upper classes nothing is to be learned. The deeper signification of race differences is being daily more and more illustrated in the effects of the higher education. Instead of creating any community of feeling, it appears only to widen the distance between the Occidental and the Oriental. Some foreign observers have declared that it does this by enormously developing certain latent peculiarities —among others an inherent materialism little perceptible among fife common people. This explanation is one I cannot quite agree with; but it is at least undeniable that, the more highly he is cultivated, according to Western methods, the farther is the Japanese psychologically removed from us. Under the new education, his character seems to crystallise into something of singular hardness, and to Western observation, at least, of singular opacity. Emotionally, the Japanese child appears incomparably closer to us than the Japanese mathematician, the peasant than the statesman. Between the most elevated class of thoroughly modernised Japanese and the Western thinker anything akin to intellectual sympathy is non-existent: it is replaced on the native side by a cold and faultless politeness. Those influences which in other lands appear most potent to develop the higher emotions seem here to have the extraordinary effect of suppressing them. We are accustomed abroad to associate emotional sensibility with intellectual expansion: it would be a grievous error to apply this rule in Japan. Even the foreign teacher in an ordinary school can feel, year by year, his pupils drifting farther away from him, as they pass from class to class; in various higher educational institutions, the separation widens yet more rapidly, so that, prior to graduation, students may become to their professor little more than casual acquaintances. The enigma is perhaps, to some extent, a physiological one, requiring scientific explanation; but its solution must first be sought in ancestral habits of life and of imagination. It can be fully discussed only when its natural causes are understood; and these, we may be sure, are not simple. By some observers it is asserted that because the higher education in Japan has not yet had the effect of stimulating the higher emotions to the Occidental pitch, its developing power cannot have been exerted uniformly and wisely, but in special directions only, at the cost of character. Yet this theory involves the unwarrantable assumption that character can be created by education; and it ignores the fact that the best results are obtained by affording opportunity for the exercise of pre-existing inclination rather than by any system of teaching.
日本人の微笑を会得するためには、少し日本の古い、自然の、民衆生活に入る事ができなければならない。近代化した上流社会からは学ぶべき物は何にもない。高等教育の結果によつて人種的相違の深い意義は毎日一層深く説明されるのである。高等教育は感情の融和にはならないで、かへつて東西洋の間の疎隔を一層深くするだけのやうに思はれる。外人の中には、高等教育は或 潜伏した特色――殊に一般人民の間には殆んど認められない隠れた唯物主義――を非常に拡大する事になるので、さうなると云ふ人もある。この説明には私は充分同意できないが、とにかくこの事だけは否定できない。即ち西洋風に高い教育を受ければ受ける程、その日本人は心理的に私共と遠ざかつて行くと云ふ事である。新しい教育を受けると、その性格は妙に冷酷な物に、そして西洋事物の観察はとにかく妙に不透明な物に、結晶するらしい。情緒的には、日本の子供の方が日本の数学者よりも、農夫の方が政治家よりも、はるかに私共に近いやうである。全く近代化した日本人の最も高い階級と西洋の思想家との間には智力的同情らしい物は成立しない、日本人側ではただ冷たいそして完全な礼儀となつて居る。外 の国々では高尚な情緒を発達させるために最も有力な物と思はれる物は、ここではそれを抑圧するのに非常な効果のある物らしい。外国では私共は情緒的敏感と智力的博大とを聯想する事に慣れて居るが、この規則を日本に応用する事は悲しむべき誤であらう。普通の学校に於ける外国教師でも、年々、その生徒が、級から級へと進む毎に、自分から離れて行く事を感ずる、色々の高い程度の学校では、この離れ方は一層早くなつて、卒業に近い学生は教授に取つてはただ偶然の知り合ひ同様になる。この謎は、或 は幾分は、科学的説明を要する心理上の問題である。しかしその解決は第一に人生及び想像に関する祖先以来の習慣に求められねばならない。その自然の原因が理解される時に始めて、この問題が充分に論ぜられるが、これは、簡単ではないと思はれる。或人は論じて、日本の高等教育は、高尚なる情緒を西洋の程度に刺激する力が未だないから、その開発力は一様に又賢明に発揮されてゐないで、ただ、特別の方向にのみ向けられるから、性格の方面で損失を免れないと云ふ。しかしこの論には性格は教育によつて造り出されると云ふ許容し難い仮設が入つて居る、そして如何なる制度の教育によるよりも、以前から存する性癖嗜好を利用する機会を与へた方が最良の結果を得られると云ふ事実を無視して居る。
The causes of the phenomenon must be looked for in the race character; and whatever the higher education may accomplish in the remote future, it can scarcely be expected to transform nature. But does it at present atrophy certain finer tendencies? I think that it unavoidably does, for the simple reason that, under existing conditions, the moral and mental powers are overtasked by its requirements. All that wonderful national spirit of duty, of patience, of self-sacrifice, anciently directed to social, moral, or religious idealism, must, under the discipline of the higher training, be concentrated upon an end which not only demands, but exhausts its fullest exercise. For that end, to be accomplished at all, must be accomplished in the face of difficulties that the Western student rarely encounters, and could scarcely be made even to understand. All those moral qualities which made the old Japanese character admirable are certainly the same which make the modern Japanese student the most indefatigable, the most docile, the most ambitious in the world. But they are also qualities which urge him to efforts in excess of his natural powers, with the frequent result of mental and moral enervation. The nation has entered upon a period of intellectual overstrain. Consciously or unconsciously, in obedience to sudden necessity, Japan has undertaken nothing less than the tremendous task of forcing mental expansion up to the highest existing standard; and this means forcing the development of the nervous system. For the desired intellectual change, to be accomplished within a few generations, must involve a physiological change never to be effected without terrible cost. In other words, Japan has attempted too much; yet under the circumstances she could not have attempted less. Happily, even among the poorest of her poor the educational policy of the Government is seconded with an astonishing zeal; the entire nation has plunged into study with a fervour of which it is utterly impossible to convey any adequate conception in this little essay. Yet I may cite a touching example. Immediately after the frightful earthquake of 1891, the children of the ruined cities of Gifu and Aichi, crouching among the ashes of their homes, cold and hungry and shelterless, surrounded by horror and misery unspeakable, still continued their small studies, using tiles of their own burnt dwellings in lieu of slates, and bits of lime for chalk, even while the earth still trembled beneath them. [2] What future miracles may justly be expected from the amazing power of purpose such a fact reveals!
悉 く、高等教育の訓練のために、その全部の活動を要求するのみならず、さらに疲労させる或目的の方へ集中されねばならない。その目的通りを苟 くも果すためには、西洋の学生が滅多に出逢はないそして容易に理解のできないやうな困難に面してから、漸くその目的は果されるのである。古い日本人の性格を感嘆すべき物としたそれ等の徳性は、今日の日本学生をして、世界に於て最も堅忍不抜な、最も従順な、最も大望のある者とならしめた物とたしかに同一の徳性である。しかしその徳性は、同時に日本学生をして本来の力以上の努力をさせて、その結果往々精神的道徳的衰弱を来たさせる。この国民は過度の智力的緊張の時期に蹈み込んで居る。意識してか或は無意識にか、不意の必要に迫られて、日本は精神的膨脹を現在の最高標準まで無理に押上げると云ふ恐ろしい仕事を正にやり出した、そしてこれは神経系統を無理に発達させようとする事になる。僅か数代のうちに、望み通りの智力的変化を仕遂げようとする事は、恐るべき損害なしには決して行はれない生理的変化を必ず起させる。換言すれば、日本の計画は多大に過ぎる、しかし現在の事情では、それよりも小さい計画をする事はできなかつたらう。幸にして日本の貧困者中の最も貧困者の間にでも、政府の教育方針は驚くべき熱心を以て助けられて居る、国民全体は学問に熱中して居る、その熱心の程度はこの小さい論文でこの適当な概念を伝へる事はできない程である。それでも私は一つ感動すべき例を書かう。一八九一（明治二十四年）の恐ろしい地震のすぐあとで、岐阜愛知の破壊された都市の児童は、名状のできない恐怖と災禍に取巻かれて、寒い、飢ゑた、家もない時でも、石板の代りに彼自身の燃えた家の瓦を使ひ、石筆の代りに針金のちぎれを使つて、大地が未だ足の下で動いて居る間註二でも、やはり彼等の小さい勉学を続けた。こんな事実が表はす意志の驚くべき力から将来どんな奇蹟が正しく期待される事であらう。
しかし高等教育の結果は今の処全然好結果を来してゐない事は事実である。古風の日本人の間には、如何に感嘆しても及ばない程の礼儀と、無私と、純粋なる善良から来る品位とを見る。新時代の現代化した人々のうちにはこれ等のものは殆んど見られない。浅薄な懐疑の平凡と模倣の野卑以上に脱する事もできないで、古い時代と古い習慣を罵倒する青年の一階級を人はよく見る。彼等が祖先から遺伝した筈の高尚な、そして愛すべき性質はどうなつたのであらう。その性質の最上の物は形を変へてただの努力、――性格を消耗しつくして、重さもなく釣合も取れない物にしてしまつた程、そんなに法外な努力だけになつた事はあり得べき事であらうか。
It is to the still fluid, mobile, natural existence of the common people that one must look for the meaning of some apparent differences in the race feeling and emotional expression of the West and the Far East. With those gentle, kindly, sweet-hearted folk, who smile at life, love, and death alike, it is possible to enjoy community of feeling in simple, natural things; and by familiarity and sympathy we can learn why they smile.
西洋と東洋の人種的感情及び情緒的表情に於ける或 外面的相違の意味をさがさねばならぬところは、未だ流れ動く自然の平民社会の状態に存するのである。生、愛、及び死に対して同じく微笑するそれ等の温和な、親切な、心のやさしい人々と、単純な自然物に対して感情の交りを楽しむ事ができるのである、そして親しみと同情とによつて彼等の微笑の理由を知る事ができる。
日本の子供は生れながらにしてこの傾向をもつて居る、そしてこの傾向は家庭教育の凡ての時期を通じて養成される。しかしそれは庭樹の自然の傾向を養成して行く時に示されると同じ程度の綿密さで養成される。微笑はお辞儀と同じく、平身低頭と同じく、長上に対する挨拶のつぎに喜悦のしるしとして息を少しすつと吸ひ込む事と同じく、凡て古 への礼儀の細密なそして美 はしい作法と同じく、教へられる。明かな道理で高笑は奨励されない。しかし微笑は長上に或 は同輩に話しかける時、凡て愉快な場合に用ひられる、そして愉快でない場合にも用ひられる、それは行儀の一部分である。最も愉快な顔はにこにこした顔である、そしてできるだけ最も愉快な顔を両親、親戚、教師、友人、好意を有せる人々に示すのは生活の法則である。そしてその上たえず外界に幸福の態度を表はし、他人にできる限りの愉快な印象を与へるのは、生活の法則である。たとへ胸の張り裂ける場合でも、勇敢に微笑するのは社会的義務である。それに反してしかつべらしく不機嫌な顔をするのは無礼である、これは私共を愛する人々に心配や苦痛を与へる事になるから、同時に又愚 な事である、私共を愛しない人々の方で不親切な好奇心を起させる事になるから。幼年時代から義務として養成されて居るから微笑はやがて本能的になる。最も貧しい農夫の心にも、自分だけの悲しみ苦しみ或は怒りを表はす事は餘り役に立たない。そしていつても不親切であると云ふ自信が生きて居る。それ故他の国に於けると同じく日本に於ても自然の悲歎に自然の出口がなければならないが、長上や客の面前に於て抑制なしに涙を流す事は無礼である、そして如何に無学な田舎女でも、そんな場合に神経が負けてしまつたあとでいつもきまつて始めに云ふ言葉は「実に我儘 勝手で失礼致しました、お赦し下さい」である。その微笑の理由はただ道徳的であるだけではない事も又注意すべきである、それは或程度まで美的である、ギリシヤ美術に於て苦痛の表情を調整したと同じ思想を幾分表はして居る。しかし美的であるよりも道徳的である方が遥かに多い、それについてやがて述べる。
From this primary etiquette of the smile there has been developed a secondary etiquette, the observance of which has frequently impelled foreigners to form the most cruel misjudgements as to Japanese sensibility. It is the native custom that whenever a painful or shocking fact must be told, the announcement should be made, by the sufferer, with a smile. [3] The graver the subject, the more accentuated the smile; and when the matter is very unpleasant to the person speaking of it, the smile often changes to a low, soft laugh. However bitterly the mother who has lost her first-born may have wept at the funeral, it is probable that, if in your service, she will tell of her bereavement with a smile: like the Preacher, she holds that there is a time to weep and a time to laugh. It was long before I myself could understand how it was possible for those whom I believed to have loved a person recently dead to announce to me that death with a laugh. Yet the laugh was politeness carried to the utmost point of self-abnegation. It signified: 'This you might honourably think to be an unhappy event; pray do not suffer Your Superiority to feel concern about so inferior a matter, and pardon the necessity which causes us to outrage politeness by speaking about such an affair at all.'.
屢〻 日本人の感受性に関して最も残酷な誤解を抱かしむるやうになつたのである。痛ましき又は恐るべき事を云ふべき場合に、その話はその苦しみ恐ろしさを受けた人によつて微笑註三しながら話されるのが日本の習慣である。その問題が重大であればある程その微笑は重大になる、そしてその事がそれを話す人に甚だ不快な時にはその微笑はよく低い穏やかな笑ひ声に変る。初生児を失つた母が葬式の時どれ程烈しく泣いたとしても、奉公に出て居る場合ならその不幸を話す時には多分微笑をもつてするであらう、伝道者訳者註一のやうに泣く時あり笑ふ時ありと彼女は思ふて居る。人々が愛してゐたと信ぜられる者のこの頃歿 くなつた事を、その人々が私に笑つて話す事のできる事が私自身にも中々了解できなかつた。しかしその笑は克己の極端まで進んだ礼儀であつた。かう云ふ意味である、『これはあなたは不幸な事件とお考になるでせうが、どうかそんなつまらない事に御心を悩まさないで下さい、そして一体止むを得ずこんな事を云つて、礼儀を破る事になつた事をお赦し下さい』
最も理解のできない微笑の祕密の鍵は日本人の礼儀正しさである。過失のために解雇を宣告された従者は平伏してそして微笑して容赦を願ふ。その微笑は無感覚や無礼の正反対である、『はい、たしかに御宣告の正しい事に私満足して居ります、そして私の過失の大きい事が今よく分りました。しかし私の悲しみと必要から無理な我儘な御願を申し上げて実に失礼とは存じますが御勘辨(かんべん)を御願する事を御赦し頂きたい』子供らしい涙を流す年齢以上に達した少年少女は何かの過失のために罰せられた時には微笑してその罰を受ける、その微笑はこんな意味である『私の心に何の悪感情も起りません、私の過失はもつとひどい罰を受ける価値があります』そして私の横濱の友人の鞭で打たれた車夫は同じ道理で微笑したのであつた、それを私の友人が直覚したに相違ない、その微笑は直ちに彼を和らげたから。『私は大層悪かつた、それであなたの怒りは当然です、私は打たれる価値があります、それだから悪感情は抱きません』
But it should be understood that the poorest and humblest Japanese is rarely submissive under injustice. His apparent docility is due chiefly to his moral sense. The foreigner who strikes a native for sport may have reason to find that he has made a serious mistake. The Japanese are not to be trifled with; and brutal attempts to trifle with them have cost several worthless lives.
しかし如何に貧しい身分の卑しい日本人でも無理の前には従順でない事も理解して置くべきである。彼の表面の柔順性は重に彼の道徳観念から起つて居る。戯れに日本人をなぐつて見る外国人は当然重大なる過失をした事に気がつくだらう。日本人は愚弄さるべきでない、そして日本人を愚弄しようと乱暴にも試みた人で、そのつまらない生命をなくした者は幾人もある。
Even after the foregoing explanations, the incident of the Japanese nurse may still seem incomprehensible; but this, I feel quite sure, is because the narrator either suppressed or overlooked certain facts in the case. In the first half of the story, all is perfectly clear. When announcing her husband's death, the young servant smiled, in accordance with the native formality already referred to. What is quite incredible is that, of her own accord, she should have invited the attention of her mistress to the contents of the vase, or funeral urn. If she knew enough of Japanese politeness to smile in announcing her husband's death, she must certainly have known enough to prevent her from perpetrating such an error. She could have shown the vase and its contents only in obedience to some real or fancied command; and when so doing, it is more than possible she may have uttered the low, soft laugh which accompanies either the unavoidable performance of a painful duty, or the enforced utterance of a painful statement. My own opinion is that she was obliged to gratify a wanton curiosity. Her smile or laugh would then have signified: 'Do not suffer your honourable feelings to be shocked upon my unworthy account; it is indeed very rude of me, even at your honourable request, to mention so contemptible a thing as my sorrow.'
以上の説明をしたあとでも、日本の乳母の事件は未だ不可解に見えるやうだ、しかしこれは話した人がこの場合或 事実を削除したか、或 は見逃したからだと私は信ずる。その話の前半は完全によく分る。夫の死を報告する時その若い召使はすでに云つた日本の形式に随つて微笑した。全く信じ難い事は、彼女が自ら進んでその瓶即ち骨壺にある物を彼女の女主人に見せようとしたなどと云ふ事である。彼女の夫の死を報告するのに微笑を以てする程日本の礼儀を心得て居るのなら、こんな過ちを犯すに到らないだけの心得がたしかにあつた筈である。実際の命令であつたか、命ぜられたと想像したか、それに随つて始めてその骨壺とその中にある物とを示したのであらう、そしてさうする時彼女は苦しい義務を止むを得ず行ふ時か、或は苦しい陳述をせん方なく発言する時、それに伴ふ低い柔かな笑を発した事は如何にもありさうである。私自身の意見では彼女は徒らな好奇心を満足させねばならなくなつたのであらう。彼女の微笑或は笑はこんな意味であつたらう『つまらぬ私のために御心を痛めないで下さい、たとへ御求めであつても、私の悲しみのやうなそんなつまらぬ事を申し上げるのは本当に甚だ失礼でございます』
日本人の微笑を会得するためには、少し日本の古い、自然の、民衆生活に入る事ができなければならない。近代化した上流社会からは学ぶべき物は何にもない。高等教育の結果によつて人種的相違の深い意義は毎日一層深く説明されるのである。高等教育は感情の融和にはならないで、かへつて東西洋の間の疎隔を一層深くするだけのやうに思はれる。外人の中には、高等教育は
The causes of the phenomenon must be looked for in the race character; and whatever the higher education may accomplish in the remote future, it can scarcely be expected to transform nature. But does it at present atrophy certain finer tendencies? I think that it unavoidably does, for the simple reason that, under existing conditions, the moral and mental powers are overtasked by its requirements. All that wonderful national spirit of duty, of patience, of self-sacrifice, anciently directed to social, moral, or religious idealism, must, under the discipline of the higher training, be concentrated upon an end which not only demands, but exhausts its fullest exercise. For that end, to be accomplished at all, must be accomplished in the face of difficulties that the Western student rarely encounters, and could scarcely be made even to understand. All those moral qualities which made the old Japanese character admirable are certainly the same which make the modern Japanese student the most indefatigable, the most docile, the most ambitious in the world. But they are also qualities which urge him to efforts in excess of his natural powers, with the frequent result of mental and moral enervation. The nation has entered upon a period of intellectual overstrain. Consciously or unconsciously, in obedience to sudden necessity, Japan has undertaken nothing less than the tremendous task of forcing mental expansion up to the highest existing standard; and this means forcing the development of the nervous system. For the desired intellectual change, to be accomplished within a few generations, must involve a physiological change never to be effected without terrible cost. In other words, Japan has attempted too much; yet under the circumstances she could not have attempted less. Happily, even among the poorest of her poor the educational policy of the Government is seconded with an astonishing zeal; the entire nation has plunged into study with a fervour of which it is utterly impossible to convey any adequate conception in this little essay. Yet I may cite a touching example. Immediately after the frightful earthquake of 1891, the children of the ruined cities of Gifu and Aichi, crouching among the ashes of their homes, cold and hungry and shelterless, surrounded by horror and misery unspeakable, still continued their small studies, using tiles of their own burnt dwellings in lieu of slates, and bits of lime for chalk, even while the earth still trembled beneath them. [2] What future miracles may justly be expected from the amazing power of purpose such a fact reveals!
2 The shocks continued, though with lessening frequency and violence, for more than six months after the cataclysm.この現象の原因は、人種性格に求められねばならない、そして高等教育が遠き将来に於て如何なる結果を生ずるにしても、元来の性質を改造する物とは期待されない。しかし現在に於て或よい方の傾向を萎縮させる事になつてゐないだらうか。私は必ずさうなつて居ると思ふ、その単なる理由は、現在の状況では高等教育の要求によつて道徳的精神的の力が過重の負担を課されるからである。古への社会的道徳的、或は宗教的精神主義の方へ向けられた義務、忍耐、犠牲の驚くべき国民性は
註二。次第に回数と強さを減じたのではあるが、この地震は、その大災害ののち六ヶ月続いた。But it is true that as yet the results of the higher training have not been altogether happy. Among the Japanese of the old regime one encounters a courtesy, an unselfishness, a grace of pure goodness, impossible to overpraise. Among the modernised of the new generation these have almost disappeared. One meets a class of young men who ridicule the old times and the old ways without having been able to elevate themselves above the vulgarism of imitation and the commonplaces of shallow scepticism. What has become of the noble and charming qualities they must have inherited from their fathers? Is it not possible that the best of those qualities have been transmuted into mere effort,—an effort so excessive as to have exhausted character, leaving it without weight or balance?
しかし高等教育の結果は今の処全然好結果を来してゐない事は事実である。古風の日本人の間には、如何に感嘆しても及ばない程の礼儀と、無私と、純粋なる善良から来る品位とを見る。新時代の現代化した人々のうちにはこれ等のものは殆んど見られない。浅薄な懐疑の平凡と模倣の野卑以上に脱する事もできないで、古い時代と古い習慣を罵倒する青年の一階級を人はよく見る。彼等が祖先から遺伝した筈の高尚な、そして愛すべき性質はどうなつたのであらう。その性質の最上の物は形を変へてただの努力、――性格を消耗しつくして、重さもなく釣合も取れない物にしてしまつた程、そんなに法外な努力だけになつた事はあり得べき事であらうか。
It is to the still fluid, mobile, natural existence of the common people that one must look for the meaning of some apparent differences in the race feeling and emotional expression of the West and the Far East. With those gentle, kindly, sweet-hearted folk, who smile at life, love, and death alike, it is possible to enjoy community of feeling in simple, natural things; and by familiarity and sympathy we can learn why they smile.
西洋と東洋の人種的感情及び情緒的表情に於ける
引用者註、こゝを読んで思ひ出したのは、上皇陛下の御製であつた。これは「戦後七十年にあたり、北原尾 、千振 、大日向 の開拓地を訪 ふ」と題された御製である。
開拓の日々いかばかり難 かりしを面 穏やかに人らの語る（平成二十七年）
また次のものは「満蒙開拓平和祈念館にて」と題されてゐる。
戦の終りし後 の難き日々を面 おだやかに開拓者語る（平成二十八年）
どちらも戦後の苦しい日々を実に穏やかに語る元引揚者らの温和で親切で心やさしい姿を彷彿とさせるのである。The Japanese child is born with this happy tendency, which is fostered through all the period of home education. But it is cultivated with the same exquisiteness that is shown in the cultivation of the natural tendencies of a garden plant. The smile is taught like the bow; like the prostration; like that little sibilant sucking-in of the breath which follows, as a token of pleasure, the salutation to a superior; like all the elaborate and beautiful etiquette of the old courtesy. Laughter is not encouraged, for obvious reasons. But the smile is to be used upon all pleasant occasions, when speaking to a superior or to an equal, and even upon occasions which are not pleasant; it is a part of deportment. The most agreeable face is the smiling face; and to present always the most agreeable face possible to parents, relatives, teachers, friends, well-wishers, is a rule of life. And furthermore, it is a rule of life to turn constantly to the outer world a mien of happiness, to convey to others as far as possible a pleasant impression. Even though the heart is breaking, it is a social duty to smile bravely. On the other hand, to look serious or unhappy is rude, because this may cause anxiety or pain to those who love us; it is likewise foolish, since it may excite unkindly curiosity on the part of those who love us not. Cultivated from childhood as a duty, the smile soon becomes instinctive. In the mind of the poorest peasant lives the conviction that to exhibit the expression of one's personal sorrow or pain or anger is rarely useful, and always unkind. Hence, although natural grief must have, in Japan as elsewhere, its natural issue, an uncontrollable burst of tears in the presence of superiors or guests is an impoliteness; and the first words of even the most unlettered countrywoman, after the nerves give way in such a circumstance, are invariably: 'Pardon my selfishness in that I have been so rude!' The reasons for the smile, be it also observed, are not only moral; they are to some extent aesthetic they partly represent the same idea which regulated the expression of suffering in Greek art. But they are much more moral than aesthetic, as we shall presently observe.
日本の子供は生れながらにしてこの傾向をもつて居る、そしてこの傾向は家庭教育の凡ての時期を通じて養成される。しかしそれは庭樹の自然の傾向を養成して行く時に示されると同じ程度の綿密さで養成される。微笑はお辞儀と同じく、平身低頭と同じく、長上に対する挨拶のつぎに喜悦のしるしとして息を少しすつと吸ひ込む事と同じく、凡て
From this primary etiquette of the smile there has been developed a secondary etiquette, the observance of which has frequently impelled foreigners to form the most cruel misjudgements as to Japanese sensibility. It is the native custom that whenever a painful or shocking fact must be told, the announcement should be made, by the sufferer, with a smile. [3] The graver the subject, the more accentuated the smile; and when the matter is very unpleasant to the person speaking of it, the smile often changes to a low, soft laugh. However bitterly the mother who has lost her first-born may have wept at the funeral, it is probable that, if in your service, she will tell of her bereavement with a smile: like the Preacher, she holds that there is a time to weep and a time to laugh. It was long before I myself could understand how it was possible for those whom I believed to have loved a person recently dead to announce to me that death with a laugh. Yet the laugh was politeness carried to the utmost point of self-abnegation. It signified: 'This you might honourably think to be an unhappy event; pray do not suffer Your Superiority to feel concern about so inferior a matter, and pardon the necessity which causes us to outrage politeness by speaking about such an affair at all.'.
3 Of course the converse is the rule in condoling with the sufferer.この微笑の第一の作法から第二の作法が発達して来て居る、それを守る事が外国人をして
註三。勿論同情する方からは、その反対になるのがきまりである。即ちこちらは悲しい表情で対せねばならない。
訳者註一。旧約聖書（伝道の書）（ダビデの子、エルサレムの王、伝道者の言）第三章第四章の文句。The key to the mystery of the most unaccountable smiles is Japanese politeness. The servant sentenced to dismissal for a fault prostrates himself, and asks for pardon with a smile. That smile indicates the very reverse of callousness or insolence: 'Be assured that I am satisfied with the great justice of your honourable sentence, and that I am now aware of the gravity of my fault. Yet my sorrow and my necessity have caused me to indulge the unreasonable hope that I may be forgiven for my great rudeness in asking pardon.' The youth or girl beyond the age of childish tears, when punished for some error, receives the punishment with a smile which means: 'No evil feeling arises in my heart; much worse than this my fault has deserved.' And the kurumaya cut by the whip of my Yokohama friend smiled for a similar reason, as my friend must have intuitively felt, since the smile at once disarmed him: 'I was very wrong, and you are right to be angry: I deserve to be struck, and therefore feel no resentment.'
最も理解のできない微笑の祕密の鍵は日本人の礼儀正しさである。過失のために解雇を宣告された従者は平伏してそして微笑して容赦を願ふ。その微笑は無感覚や無礼の正反対である、『はい、たしかに御宣告の正しい事に私満足して居ります、そして私の過失の大きい事が今よく分りました。しかし私の悲しみと必要から無理な我儘な御願を申し上げて実に失礼とは存じますが御勘辨(かんべん)を御願する事を御赦し頂きたい』子供らしい涙を流す年齢以上に達した少年少女は何かの過失のために罰せられた時には微笑してその罰を受ける、その微笑はこんな意味である『私の心に何の悪感情も起りません、私の過失はもつとひどい罰を受ける価値があります』そして私の横濱の友人の鞭で打たれた車夫は同じ道理で微笑したのであつた、それを私の友人が直覚したに相違ない、その微笑は直ちに彼を和らげたから。『私は大層悪かつた、それであなたの怒りは当然です、私は打たれる価値があります、それだから悪感情は抱きません』
But it should be understood that the poorest and humblest Japanese is rarely submissive under injustice. His apparent docility is due chiefly to his moral sense. The foreigner who strikes a native for sport may have reason to find that he has made a serious mistake. The Japanese are not to be trifled with; and brutal attempts to trifle with them have cost several worthless lives.
しかし如何に貧しい身分の卑しい日本人でも無理の前には従順でない事も理解して置くべきである。彼の表面の柔順性は重に彼の道徳観念から起つて居る。戯れに日本人をなぐつて見る外国人は当然重大なる過失をした事に気がつくだらう。日本人は愚弄さるべきでない、そして日本人を愚弄しようと乱暴にも試みた人で、そのつまらない生命をなくした者は幾人もある。
Even after the foregoing explanations, the incident of the Japanese nurse may still seem incomprehensible; but this, I feel quite sure, is because the narrator either suppressed or overlooked certain facts in the case. In the first half of the story, all is perfectly clear. When announcing her husband's death, the young servant smiled, in accordance with the native formality already referred to. What is quite incredible is that, of her own accord, she should have invited the attention of her mistress to the contents of the vase, or funeral urn. If she knew enough of Japanese politeness to smile in announcing her husband's death, she must certainly have known enough to prevent her from perpetrating such an error. She could have shown the vase and its contents only in obedience to some real or fancied command; and when so doing, it is more than possible she may have uttered the low, soft laugh which accompanies either the unavoidable performance of a painful duty, or the enforced utterance of a painful statement. My own opinion is that she was obliged to gratify a wanton curiosity. Her smile or laugh would then have signified: 'Do not suffer your honourable feelings to be shocked upon my unworthy account; it is indeed very rude of me, even at your honourable request, to mention so contemptible a thing as my sorrow.'
以上の説明をしたあとでも、日本の乳母の事件は未だ不可解に見えるやうだ、しかしこれは話した人がこの場合
ラフカディオ・ハーン「知られぬ日本の面影」『小泉八雲全集 第三巻』、第一書房、大正１５年
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