In search of the Japanese man in the modern world

With the publication of Natsume Souseki's key works by Farhan Contemporary Publishing House, the path of evolution of Japan's leading author has been paved for Persian-speaking readers. The novels "Buchan" and "Sanshiro" are two classic works that explore two different angles to see a changing society. In this article, we will examine the personality conflicts of Suseki's heroes and the place of these works in modern Japanese literature.

The Iranian Ambassador of Arjan's Literature Service (Arjan's Ambassador) - Leila Abdullahi, translator and critic: Souseki Natsume can be considered one of the most important writers in Japan at the moment of this country's transition from the traditional world to the modern world; A writer who formed an important part of modern Japanese literature along with the narration of the story and recording the human and social anxieties of this transition. "Buchan" and "Sanshiro", his two important novels, translated by Hashim Rajabzadeh and published by Farhang Masazare publishing house, although they have significant differences in terms of tone and characterization, they meet at one point: both are about a human being who has to find his place in a new world.

"Buchan" was published in 1906; Only one year before "Sanshiro", but the world of these two novels has a fundamental difference. "Buchan" is the story of a hot-tempered, outspoken and irreverent young man who goes to teach at a school in a remote town after finishing his studies. Sanshiro, published in 1908 and the first part of a trilogy followed by Then and The Gate, follows a city youth who comes to Tokyo from Kyushu to attend university. If "Buchan" is the story of a young man who reaches the world of adults and is enraged by the lies, pretense and moral corruption around him, "Sanshiro" is the story of a young man who still does not know how the world works and must learn little by little that reality is more complicated than what he imagined in his mind. One attacks the world with a sharp fist and tongue; The other looks more, is astonished and sometimes does not understand what is happening around him. This difference turns the two novels into two complementary images of Japanese society in the Meiji period.

"Buchan" is above all a moral novel. The narrator is a young man who has had a rebellious personality since childhood. He is also aware of this point and from the very beginning, he talks about himself with honesty that sometimes approaches arrogance. But behind this harshness, there is a simple moral principle: he hates hypocrisy. What is unbearable for him is the gap between what people say and what they do. When he arrives at school, he meets a group of people who are each involved in this contradiction in some way. The principal, teachers and students are caught in a relationship full of competition, intrigue, jealousy and social drama. "Buchan" cannot accept the rules of the game in such an environment; Because he is not ready to coordinate his language with expediency in order to advance his work. This feature is both his strength and his weakness. He is not a perfect hero. He gets angry quickly, makes judgments and sometimes naively gets into situations that he doesn't see their complexities. But Soussekey uses exactly this contradiction. "Buchan" is not supposed to be a picture of an ideal man; He is a young man who has not yet found a way between morality and social reality. The humor of the novel also comes from here. Although at its core a novel about morality, "Buchan" is very funny. Instead of presenting a moral discourse about corruption, hypocrisy and power relations, Sousseaki allows the characters to reveal themselves. The narrator also highlights the contradictions of the environment with his dry and uncompromising tone.

In fact, Sousseaki makes a kind of anti-discourse moralism in "Buchan". Moral values are not presented through discourses on virtue; Rather, they are formed by comparing people's behavior with each other. The reader sees who lies, who talks behind others' backs, who abuses their power, and who, despite their mistakes, refuses to play the hypocritical game. That's why "Buchan" still looks fresh despite the passage of more than a century. Of course, the school of the novel is the Japanese school of the early 20th century, but its human relations are not so strange. Job competition, popularity seeking, hierarchy, hypocrisy and distance between respectable appearance and real behavior are not limited to a specific time and place. But if "Buchan" is a young character who is involved with the world, "Sanshiro" is a young person who has just entered the world. Sanshiro Ogawa comes to Tokyo from the Kyushu region, in southern Japan, to study at the University of Tokyo. At the same time, this trip is a geographical shift from a relatively traditional and familiar environment to a city where signs of modernity can be seen everywhere; A city full of students, professors, intellectuals, new ideas, new relationships and possibilities that Sanshiro still doesn't have the language to understand.

If Buchan looks at the world and says, "This isn't right," Sanshiro is more likely to ask, "What is this?" And this question forms the basis of the novel. Sanshiro doesn't have enough experience yet. He has a simpler idea than reality about women, love, university, intellectuals and social relations. In Tokyo, he meets people who are far more complicated than he can quickly understand. Especially in dealing with women and emotional relationships, he is caught between tension, hesitation, embarrassment and inability to make a decision.

In Sanshiro, the university is one of the symbols of the new Japan. Students deal with new ideas and professors navigate a world permeated by Western science and culture. But Sousseaki does not idealize even this new world. Knowledge and modernity do not necessarily lead to moral maturity. One can be educated and still fall into selfishness, doubt and power play in human relationships. This point separates Sanshiro from a simple novel about student life. It is not a question of a city student who comes to university; The problem is a country that is rapidly entering university, city, science, capitalism and modern culture. Sanshiro can actually be a metaphor for Japan itself: young, curious, excited, but still inexperienced and sometimes confused.

In Buchan, we see social change more from below and from the school environment; In Sanshiro, we experience it from within the university and the city. One shows the small world of the school and the other shows the big world of Tokyo. One focuses on people's behavior and the other on the mental experience of a young person who faces the complex world of adults for the first time. However, there is an important similarity between the two heroes: both have not yet fully come to terms with the rules of the world around them. But their reaction is different. "Buchan" fights the world; Sanshiro pauses before it. Buchan hates uncertainty and wants to clarify everything. Sanshiro lives in a space where nothing is so clear. For this reason, "Buchan" has a faster rhythm and more direct humor, while "Sanshiro" is calmer, subtler and more psychological.

This difference can be seen in the literary evolution of Souseki himself. Buchan became one of his most popular works and has been a well-known book for generations of students and youth in Japan. The novel has made its way to film and television many times, and even parts of it have been recreated in the form of the manga series "Buchan's Time" by Jiro Tanguchi. "Sanshiro" later became one of Souseki's most important works in the development of the modern Japanese novel, and it is the first part of a trilogy that continues with "Then" and "The Gate".

In both books, one of Souseki's main issues is the relationship between the individual and the society. Modern man can no longer live only according to traditional rules, but new rules have not been established yet. Individuality has emerged, but it has brought loneliness and anxiety along with it. Education and knowledge have expanded, but they have not created a guarantee of happiness. The city has become bigger, but people are not necessarily closer to each other. This is the point that makes Souseki attractive to today's readers. He writes about a world that has passed more than a hundred years ago, but his questions still remain: when society changes, how should a person change himself? Can morality be preserved in a world based on competition and expediency? Does studying mean understanding life? And when a person is separated from his familiar environment, what remains of his previous identity?

Hashem Rajabzadeh's translation of "Buchan" and "Sanshiro" and the publication of both works by Farhang Contemporary Publishing House is also important from the point of view that these two books together provide the possibility of reading two stages of Souseki's view of Japanese people. Recently, Rajabzadeh has translated "Alijnab Magh" from Souseki, and "Roadside Grass" translated by Azadeh Selahshor has also been published in the same publication. As a result, the Persian-speaking reader can face a significant collection of Souseki's works and better follow the evolution of his view.

Reading "Buchan" and "Sanshiro" are two different angles to see a changing society. In one, a youth stands with anger and frankness against the world that he sees as corrupt; In another, a young man faces a world whose secrets he cannot yet read. Maybe that's why Souseki is still a living writer for today's readers. He comes from a world far away, but he writes about a moment that is familiar to many people: the moment when the old world no longer works and the new world is not yet comprehensible. Buchan gets angry at this moment; Sanshiro is amazed. And Souseki, behind both of them, looks at a person who has to find his own way between these two reactions.

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