戸と窓の間

Mr. YAGI, Toshio gave a special lecture titled On the completion of the translation of The Scarlet Letter to the 12th national conference of Japan Nathaniel Hawthorne Society. He pointed out a question why Governor Bellingham stepped through the window into the hall, followed by his three guests. It is one of his topics he mentioned in his lecture. Though some attendants made some comments on it, I am afraid there were not any settled answers given to it. Later I found Mr. YAGI made a note about it in his translation which reads mado (it means a window in Japanese) is no mis-translation. It seems to be an open question still. I wonder any simple English-Japanese dictionaries give a clue to this question. An explanation on window in one of them reads window means any opening in the wall, a door closing it or space just inside of the window as well. Any Western house has two doors: a front or hall-door and a rear or back one. In between there are windows about the house. One of them is a long or large window to it. It is a door, another door. Most of the Westerners take it for granted that they can step or walk in through some type of window in a hall or large room of any Western style house. We would like to make clear of any possibility of a unity between window and door through their cultural back-ground and literary value. The Westerners prefer more air or wind, more light and more warmth into any rooms of their house. Some windows get taller and larger enough to be doors. Through more light we can see more of Hester and Pearl, and both of them are more conspicuous, impressive and significant in the present work.

公開日:2010年1月24日で登録したコンテンツは、国立情報学研究所において電子化したものです。