Quote:
Originally Posted by Columbine
I'm doing a translation for kicks and 練習. Much obliged if someone could have a quick look over it as I go along and offer feedback. I also have a few questions about some of the language.
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夏帽子
萩原朔太郎
Straw Hat
Any reason for using "straw" here?
by Hagiwara Sakutarou
1) 青年の時は、だれでもつまらないことに熱情をもつもの だ。
When
I was a young man, everyone was getting worked up over nothing.
"Everyone, when he is a young man, ~~~."
２) その頃、地方の或る高等学校に居た私は、毎年初夏の季 節になると、きまつて一つの熱情にとりつかれた。
At that time in my life, every year as the season changed to early summer, I would unfailingly take on a single passion from a certain high school in the area. (I'm a little uncertain of this one. I couldn't find とりつかれた and have just inferred that it means to pick up or take on, or be inspired to.)
とりつかれた = "to be possessed (by)" in the past tense.
地方 = an area away from Tokyo.
高等学校, in the author's days, meant "university".
Seems you misunderstood the structure. "Back in those days, I, who was attending a certain university (far) away from Tokyo, would unfailingly get possessed by a single passion every early summer."
３)それは何でもないつまらぬことで、或る私の好きな� �帽子を、被つてみたいといふ願ひである。
It was a harmless, trivial thing; I had a longing to try wearing a certain hat that I liked.
Good. "summer hat".
４)その好きな帽子といふのはパナマ帽でもなくタスカ� �でもなく、あの海老茶色のリボンを巻いた、一高の夏� �子だつたのだ。
That hat that I liked wasn't a Panama hat and it wasn't a Tuscany hat, it was the summer hat of an elite school; the kind with a shrimp brown ribbon tied around it.
Okay if "shrimp brown" makes sense in English.
"maroon" or "reddish brown" would be the conventional translation.
More importantly, 一高 is the old nick for the University of Tokyo.
５)どうしてそんなにまで、あの学生帽子が好きだつた� �か、自分ながらよく解らない。
As to why I liked that student hat, even I can't really explain it.
Good. Perhaps "so much" or "that much" after "hat"?
６)多分私は、その頃愛読した森鴎外氏の『青年』や、� �目漱石氏の学生小説などから一高の学生たちを聯想し� �それが初夏の青葉の中で、上野の森などを散歩してゐ� �、彼等の夏帽子を表象させ、聯想心理に結合した為で� �らう。
Probably, because around that time I read for pleasure things like Mori Ogai's "Youth" and Natsume Souseki's student novels, and because of the association with the most elite students, who walked in Ueno woods amongst the early summer greenery, the hats became an emblem to me, the result of the combination of associations in my mind. (phew, long sentence. Minor confusions over 一高 if it's referring to the high school in the area, or just meaning 'best' or both as a sort of play on words. I read ゐる as いる. 聯想心理に結合した為であらう rather puzzled me.)
一高 means what I stated above.
Looks like the structure really got you this time. It would anyone, wouldn't it?.
It isn't the U of T students who were amongst the early summer greenery. It is the narrator.
My own translation makes me nauseous, but this is the best I could do after a few pints. You should at least get the structure and idea.
"It was probably because from reading books such as A and B, I associated them with the U of T students, and that in turn, being amongst the early summer greenery, lead me to imagine their summer hats as they walked the woods of Ueno and all of these (images) got united into my psychology of association."
７) とにかく私は、あの海老茶色のリボンを考へ、その書生 帽子を思ふだけでも、ふしぎになつかしい独逸の戯曲、 アルト・ハイデルベルヒを聯想して、夏の青葉にそよい でくる海の郷愁を感じたりした。
Anyway, I thought about that shrimp brown ribbon, I could think of nothing but that school hat and mysteriously associated it with german dramas and Alt Heidelburg, and a feeling came from the summer greenery like a sea of nostalgia. (very rough translation. だけでも is new to me, as is ふしぎに which I guessed at as "mysteriously". Alt Heidelburg is an operetta about students, FYI. I have no clue about そよいでくる. くる I assumed was 来る, but I couldn't find any similar examples of this phrase.)
ＡＡＡだけでもＢＢＢ（である） = It only takes AAA to achieve BBB.
You've got ふしぎに correctly.
そよいでくる = to rustle or sway
"Anyway, I only had to think of the reddish brown ribbon and the student hat, and I mysteriously associated it with the German play Alt Heidelburg and I was able to feel the nostalgia of the sea rustling through the summer greenery." Crappy Tokyo English, ain't it, bloke?
８) その頃私の居た地方の高等学校では、真紅色のリボンに 二本の白線を入れた帽子を、一高に準じて制定して居た 。
At that time the high school in my area enacted, in proportion to the elite schools, a hat with a crimson ribbon with two white lines running through it. (again some confusion. Can someone explain 一高に準じて制定して居た for me?)
Uni, not HS.
一高に準じて制定して居た means "(the hat) was made official following the U of T" You weren't allowed to use the same design as UT.
9)私はそれが厭だつたので、白線の上に赤インキを塗り� ��けたり、真紅色の上に紫絵具をこすつたりして、無理� ��一高の帽子に紛らして居た。
Because I disliked it, I used to paint over the white lines with red ink and go over the red with purple paint- (and I just can't get the end of this one. 無理に is like to force something; is 紛らして to "be mistake for" "to force it to be mistaken for an elite school hat"?)
無理に here means "by force" or "artificially".
紛らして means conceiling the true identity (so that you look like you go to UT).
10) だがたうとう、熱情が押へがたくなつて来たので、或夏 の休暇に上京して、本郷の帽子屋から、一高の制定帽子 を買つてしまつた。
However,(because of...the unrelenting push of my fervor?) one day off in the summer I went to the capital and in a hat shop in Hongou I regret to say I bought an elite student hat.
Excellent!
Tell me this is a bad joke.