When Yatchan Swallowed a Go Stone

[You may want to check the warning on this blog's translations.]

This is another translation of a story by ARISHIMA Takeo (有島武郎, 1878-1923), whose ʻA Bunch of Grapes’ (一房の葡萄) I translated earlier (here). It was published along with ʻA Bunch of Grapesʼ and other stories in the collection of that name in 1922. Arishima’s work is in the public domain; and the story can be downloaded from Aozora Bunko, here.

 I’ll explain in advance a few of the things mentioned in the story. If you’re familiar with Japan, you probably know everything already and you might want to skip this. 

Go stones are the playing pieces for the game of go, a board game played on a grid (19 rows each way), in which two players, one with white stones, one with black, compete to control territory. In Japan the stones are typically shaped like lentils (or smarties, if you prefer). The diameter of a stone might be about a centimeter or slightly under that.

Go stones

By liz west  [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

The tatami mentioned in the story is a kind of straw mat of a standard size. Several of them are placed together to cover a traditional Japanese room. The rooms are in standard sizes too, measured as multiples of tatami mats. The rooms are fairly flexible, with removable or slidable walls and doors.

Japanese room

 

 The ochanchan that the nurse is sewing in the story is the same as the chanchanko (ちゃんちゃんこ), I think, a short padded sleeveless kimono jacket (typically for children).

Seishoukousama (“Say-show-Coe-sama”) is probably a Buddhist temple in Tokyo, also known as Kakurinji. But I haven’t found anything relevant about it online.

I’ve put the translation after the break.

A Bunch of Grapes

[You may want to check the warning on this blog's translations.]

I had meant to make inaccessible Japanese works available, when I started. But in this case, after finishing my draft, I did an internet search and found that there is at least one book with a translation of the short story translated here. In addition, there is a translation online by Takumi KASHIMA and Loretta LORENZ in The journal of Nagasaki University of Foreign Studies here.

有島武郎 (ARISHIMA Takeo, 1878-1923) is a major writer of the Taishou period. 一房の葡萄 ('A Bunch of Grapes') is his best known children's story, first published in 1920. There is a page on the story, showing Arishima's illustration, here. You can read it online at Aozora Bunko, here.

Translation after the break.