日本人の微笑（小泉八雲）①

THE JAPANESE SMILE (Lafcadio Hearn)

　　Sec. 1　一

THOSE whose ideas of the world and its wonders have been formed chiefly by novels and romance still indulge a vague belief that the East is more serious than the West. Those who judge things from a higher standpoint argue, on the contrary, that, under present conditions, the West must be more serious than the East; and also that gravity, or even something resembling its converse, may exist only as a fashion. But the fact is that in this, as in all other questions, no rule susceptible of application to either half of humanity can be accurately framed. Scientifically, we can do no more just now than study certain contrasts in a general way, without hoping to explain satisfactorily the highly complex causes which produced them. One such contrast, of particular interest, is that afforded by the English and the Japanese.

世界及びその珍奇な事に関する考かんがへを重おもに小説や伝奇で定める人々は、今でも、東洋は西洋よりも真面目であると云ふ信仰を何となしに抱いて居る。もう少し高い立脚地から物事を判断する人々はそれに反して、現在の状況では、西洋は東洋よりも真面目である筈だと云ふ、それから真面目くさつて居る事でも、又その反対らしい事でも、ただ流行として存し得る物だと云ふ。しかし事実は、この事に関して、凡て外ほかの問題に於けると同じく、人類のどちらの半分にも応用のできるやうな正確な規則は作られない。科学的には、今の処どうしてそんな物が出て来るか、その非常に複雑な原因を満足に説明しようと思はないでただ一般にその対照をなせる結果だけを研究するより外はない。特別に興味のあるこんな対照を示せる一事は英人と日本人とによつて提供された物である。

It is a commonplace to say that the English are a serious people—not superficially serious, but serious all the way down to the bed-rock of the race character. It is almost equally safe to say that the Japanese are not very serious, either above or below the surface, even as compared with races much less serious than our own. And in the same proportion, at least, that they are less serious, they are more happy: they still, perhaps, remain the happiest people in the civilised world. We serious folk of the West cannot call ourselves very happy. Indeed, we do not yet fully know how serious we are; and it would probably frighten us to learn how much more serious we are likely to become under the ever-swelling pressure of industrial life. It is, possibly, by long sojourn among a people less gravely disposed that we can best learn our own temperament. This conviction came to me very strongly when, after having lived for nearly three years in the interior of Japan, I returned to English life for a few days at the open port of Kobe. To hear English once more spoken by Englishmen touched me more than I could have believed possible; but this feeling lasted only for a moment. My object was to make some necessary purchases. Accompanying me was a Japanese friend, to whom all that foreign life was utterly new and wonderful, and who asked me this curious question: 'Why is it that the foreigners never smile? You smile and bow when you speak to them; but they never smile. Why?'

英国人は真面目な人種、表面ばかり真面目でなく、人種性格の根柢まで真面目であると云ふのが普通である。それと同じく、英国人程ほど真面目でない人種と比べても、日本人は表面からも根柢からも甚だ真面目とは云へないと云ふ事も殆んど間違ひはない。それから少くとも真面目でないと同じ程度に、日本人はもつと気楽である、日本人は恐らくやはり文明世界に於て、最も気楽な人種である。私共西洋の真面目な者は自分で気楽だとは云へない。実際私共はどれ程真面目だか充分知らない、そして産業生活のたえず増大する圧迫のために、どれ程益々真面目になりさうだか分つて見れば、恐らく驚かずには居られないだらう。私共の気分を最もよく知る事のできるのは私共程しかつめらしくない人種の間に長く生活するに限るやうだ。私は日本内地に三年近く住んだあとで開港場の神戸で数日間英国流の生活に帰つた時、この確信が甚だ強く私に起つた。もう一度英国人の話す英語を聞いてとてもありさうにない程の感動を受けた、しかしこの感情はほんの暫しばらく続いただけであつた。私の目的は或ある必要な買物をする事であつた。私のつれの日本の友人があつた、その人に取つては凡すべて外国風の生活は、全く新しい不思議な物であつた、そしてその人は私にこんな奇妙な質問をした、『どうしてあの外国人は笑はないのでせう。あなたはあの人達に物を云ふ時、にこにこしてお辞儀をなさるが、あの人達はにこつともしない。何故でせう』

The fact was, I had fallen altogether into Japanese habits and ways, and had got out of touch with Western life; and my companion's question first made me aware that I had been acting somewhat curiously. It also seemed to me a fair illustration of the difficulty of mutual comprehension between the two races—each quite naturally, though quite erroneously, estimating the manners and motives of the other by its own. If the Japanese are puzzled by English gravity, the English are, to say the least, equally puzzled by Japanese levity. The Japanese speak of the 'angry faces' of the foreigners. The foreigners speak with strong contempt of the Japanese smile: they suspect it to signify insincerity; indeed, some declare it cannot possibly signify anything else. Only a few of the more observant have recognised it as an enigma worth studying. One of my Yokohama friends—a thoroughly lovable man, who had passed more than half his life in the open ports of the East—said to me, just before my departure for the interior: 'Since you are going to study Japanese life, perhaps you will be able to find out something for me. I can't understand the Japanese smile. Let me tell you one experience out of many. One day, as I was driving down from the Bluff, I saw an empty kuruma coming up on the wrong side of the curve. I could not have pulled up in time if I had tried; but I didn't try, because I didn't think there was any particular danger. I only yelled to the man in Japanese to get to the other side of the road; instead of which he simply backed his kuruma against a wall on the lower side of the curve, with the shafts outwards. At the rate I was going, there wasn't room even to swerve; and the next minute one of the shafts of that kuruma was in my horse's shoulder. The man wasn't hurt at all. When I saw the way my horse was bleeding, I quite lost my temper, and struck the man over the head with the butt of my whip. He looked right into my face and smiled, and then bowed. I can see that smile now. I felt as if I had been knocked down. The smile utterly nonplussed me—killed all my anger instantly. Mind you, it was a polite smile. But what did it mean? Why the devil did the man smile? I can't understand it.'

実際私は全く日本人の風俗習慣になつてしまつて、西洋風と離れてゐたのであつた、そして私の友人の質問によつて始めて私はよほど妙な事をやつて居る事に気がついた。それが又二つの人種の間の相互の了解の困難な事のよい例だと思はれた、銘々が他の人種の習慣や動機を自分の習慣や動機で判断するのは如何にも自然だが又如何にも誤り易いから。日本人は英国人のしかつべらしい事で困れば、英国人も又とにかく日本人の軽薄な事で困るのである。日本人は外国人の『顔が怒つて』居る事を云ふ。外国人は日本人のにこにこ顔をひどく軽蔑して云ふ、彼等はそれが不真面目を表はして居ると疑ふ、実際不真面目以外の意味はないと公言する者もある。只少数のもつと注意深い人は研究の価値ある謎であると認めて居る。私の横濱の友人の一人は、極めて愛すべき人で、東洋の各開港場で半生以上をすごした人だが、私の内地に出発する丁度前に私に云つた、『君は日本人の生活を研究するのだから、多分僕のために一つ発見する事ができよう。僕は日本人のにこにこ顔が分らない。沢山経験はあるが一つ云つて見よう。僕が或日あるひ山の手から馬に乗つて下りて来た時、僕はその曲り道の間違つた側から登つて来る空車を見た。馬を引き止めようとしても丁度間に合はなかつたらう、しかし大した危険もないと思つて止めて見もしなかつた。僕はただあちら側へ行くやうにと日本語でその車夫にどなつた、ところがその車夫はさうはしないで只曲り道の低い方にある塀に車をよせて梶棒を外側へむけた。僕の乗つて居る速さでは横道によける間がなかつた、それで直ぐそのつぎに車の梶棒が一つ馬の肩にあたつた。車夫は少しも怪我はしなかつた。僕は馬が出血して居る様子を見てムラムラとして、僕の鞭の太い方の端でその男の頭の上からなぐりつけた。その男は僕の顔を真面目に見てにつこり笑つて、それからお辞儀をした。そのにつこりが今でも見える。僕はたたきつけられたやうな気がした。そのにこにこで僕はすつかり参つてしまつて、怒りがすぐに飛んで行つてしまつた。全く、それは丁寧なにこにこであつた。しかし何の意味だつたらう。一体全体あの男はどんなわけで笑つたのだらう。それが分らない』

Neither, at that time, could I; but the meaning of much more mysterious smiles has since been revealed to me. A Japanese can smile in the teeth of death, and usually does. But he then smiles for the same reason that he smiles at other times. There is neither defiance nor hypocrisy in the smile; nor is it to be confounded with that smile of sickly resignation which we are apt to associate with weakness of character. It is an elaborate and long-cultivated etiquette. It is also a silent language. But any effort to interpret it according to Western notions of physiognomical expression would be just about as successful as an attempt to interpret Chinese ideographs by their real or fancied resemblance to shapes of familiar things.

私もその当時分らなかつた、しかしその後もつと遥かに分らない微笑の意味が私に分つて来た。日本人は死に面して微笑する事ができる。そして事実いつも微笑する。しかしその時微笑するのも、その外ほかの場合に微笑するのも同じ理由である。その微笑には軽侮や偽善はない、又弱い性格と聯想されがちの病的あきらめの微笑と混雑してはならない。それは念入りの、長い間に養成された礼法である。それは沈黙の言語である。しかし人相上の表情に関する西洋風の考からそれを解釈しようと試みるのは、漢字を普通の事物の形に実際似て居る、又は似て居ると想像する事で解釈しようとするのと殆んど同じく成功しさうにない。

First impressions, being largely instinctive, are scientifically recognised as partly trustworthy; and the very first impression produced by the Japanese smile is not far from the truth The stranger cannot fail to notice the generally happy and smiling character of the native faces; and this first impression is, in most cases, wonderfully pleasant. The Japanese smile at first charms. It is only at a later day, when one has observed the same smile under extraordinary circumstances—in moments of pain, shame, disappointment—that one becomes suspicious of it. Its apparent inopportuneness may even, on certain occasions, cause violent anger. Indeed, many of the difficulties between foreign residents and their native servants have been due to the smile. Any man who believes in the British tradition that a good servant must be solemn is not likely to endure with patience the smile of his 'boy.' At present, however, this particular phase of Western eccentricity is becoming more fully recognised by the Japanese; they are beginning to learn that the average English-speaking foreigner hates smiling, and is apt to consider it insulting; wherefore Japanese employees at the open ports have generally ceased to smile, and have assumed an air of sullenness.

第一印象は重おもに本能的であるから学術的に幾分信ずべき物と認められて居る、そして日本人の微笑によつて起される第一印象それ自身は事実大してまちがつてゐない。外国人は日本人の顔の大概嬉しさうな、にこにこした特色に気がつかない事はない。そしてこの第一印象は大概非常に愉快である。日本人の微笑は初めのうちは人を喜ばせる。人が始めて疑ふやうになるのはもつとあとの事で、各段な場合、即ち苦痛、恥辱、失望の場合に、それと同じ微笑を見るに到つた時である。その微笑の一見不適当な事が時として烈しい怒りを起させる事になる。実際外国の居留民と日本人の従者との間の悶着の多数は、この微笑の故である。よい従者は真面目くさつて居るべきだと云ふ英国の伝説を信じて居る人は、皆彼の『ボーイ』のこの微笑を辛抱して居られさうにはない。しかし現今西洋の風変りなこの特別の点は追々日本人にもよく認められるやうになつて来た、そして普通の英語を話す外国人は微笑を好まないで、とかくそれを侮辱的だと考へ勝ちである事を知るやうになつて来た、それだから開港場に於ける日本の使用人は大概微笑しなくなつた、そして不愛想な風を装ふて居る。

At this moment there comes to me the recollection of a queer story told by a lady of Yokohama about one of her Japanese servants. 'My Japanese nurse came to me the other day, smiling as if something very pleasant had happened, and said that her husband was dead, and that she wanted permission to attend his funeral. I told her she could go. It seems they burned the man's body. Well, in the evening she returned, and showed me a vase containing some ashes of bones (I saw a tooth among them); and she said: "That is my husband." And she actually laughed as she said it! Did you ever hear of such disgusting creatures?'

今ここで横濱の或ある婦人がその日本の女中の一人について物語つた妙な話を思ひ出した。『私の日本人の乳母が先日何か大変面白い事でもあつたやうににこにこしながら私の処へ来て、夫が死んで葬式に行きたいから許してくれと云つて来ました。私は行つてお出でと云ひました。火葬にしたやうです。ところで晩になつて帰つて来て、遺骨の入つた瓶を見せました、（そのうちに歯が一本見えました）、そして「これが私の夫ですよ」と云ひました。そしてさう云つた時実際声を上げて笑ひました。こんな厭な人間をあなた聞いた事ありますか』

It would have been quite impossible to convince the narrator of this incident that the demeanour of her servant, instead of being heartless, might have been heroic, and capable of a very touching interpretation. Even one not a Philistine might be deceived in such a case by appearances. But quite a number of the foreign residents of the open ports are pure Philistines, and never try to look below the surface of the life around them, except as hostile critics. My Yokohama friend who told me the story about the kurumaya was quite differently disposed: he recognised the error of judging by appearances.

彼女の召使の態度は不人情であるどころでなく、烈女的であつたのかも知れない、そして甚だ感動すべき説明ができたのかも知れない事を、この話をした婦人に納得させる事は全く不可能であつたらう。浅薄皮相でない人でもこんな場合には表面だけで誤られ易い。しかし開港場の外国居留者の多数は全く浅薄皮相の徒である、そして敵となつて批評する以外には彼等の周囲の人生の表面を離れて見ようとは少しもしない。私に車夫の話をした横濱の友人の考はそれと違つて居る、この人は表面で物を判断する事の誤りを認めた。

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