文庫本の裏表紙に書いてある、あの内容紹介というのは、短いながらもそれを書く人はきっと渾身の努力で書いているのに違いありません。あれで掻き立てられる読みたい気持ちは、それ自体が喜びといっていいものです。
The summery on the back cover of a paperback is quite short but I have a feeling that it requires great efforts to make the summary attractive enough. I can say that it is delightful to be intrigued by that summary.
「竜馬がゆく」第1巻の裏表紙に書かれているあらすじは、以下の様になっています。
The summary on the back of the first volume of ‘Ryoma ga Yukiu’ is as follows.
『「薩長連合、大政奉還、あれァ、ぜんぶ竜馬一人がやったことさ」と、勝海舟はいった。坂本龍馬は幕末維新史上の奇蹟といわれる。かれは土佐の郷士の次男坊にすぎず、しかも浪人の身でありながらこの大動乱期に卓抜した仕事をなしえた。竜馬の劇的な生涯を中心に、同じ時代をひたむきに生きた若者たちを描く長編小説全八冊。』
“’Both the Satsuma -Choshu Alliance and the return of political power to the Emperor by the Tokugawa shogunate were fixed by Ryoma alone’, Katsu Kaishu said. It is often said that Sakamoto Ryoma is a historical miracle at the end of the Edo era. He was born as the second child in a family of a country samurai in the Tosa domain, plus he was just a ronin but he achieved tremendous tasks. This is a book in eight volumes and it depicts mainly the dramatic life of Ryoma and the other young guys who were dedicated to their purpose in the same era as him. “
第１巻では、坂本竜馬の江戸での剣術修行中の出来事が描かれていきます。そこで浮き彫りになるのは、竜馬の人となりと、その形成に関わる人々の姿です。のちに幕末の風雲の中で凄まじい働きをすることになる竜馬ですが、第1巻での彼は、どちらかと言えばぼんやりしていて、世の中のことはおろか、まだ自分が何者かもわかっていない様子です。ただ剣術については、竜馬は天才的で、諸流試合で優勝するほどの腕前になっていきます。この小説の面白さは、一面、一人の若者の成長物語としての面白さであり、この第1巻では、それを存分に楽しむことができます。司馬遼太郎さんの語り口には妙な可笑しみがあって、時々声を上げて笑ってしまう場面すらあります。
In the first volume, what is mainly described is the events that happened while Ryoma practiced swordsmanship in Edo. You can clearly understand what he was like and how people affected him. Although he would incredibly work hard later in a critical situation at the end of the Edo era, he was still somehow careless and didn’t know anything about not only what happened in the world but also his own purpose in the first volume. Even so, he was so talented as a swordsman that he won a tournament which featured swordsmen from various schools. One of the interesting points of this story is to see how a young guy grows up and you can enjoy it to your heart’s content in the first volume. Shiba Ryotaro’s style is quite humorous so I sometimes laugh out loud.
この間の出来事として、黒船の来航があり、世の中が尊王攘夷へと動いていく様子が明快に書かれます。そこでは、竜馬が黒船を観に行き、山中で長州藩の桂小五郎と出会う、大変興味深いエピソードが描かれるのですが、それが史実なのかどうかはわかりません。まだ一介の剣士に過ぎない竜馬のことをややもどかしく思いながら、物語は第2巻へと進みます。
In the meantime, American battle ships visited these shores and the campaign to restore the emperor and expel the foreigners began. Shiba wrote about an interesting episode of the first encounter between Ryoma and Katsura Kogoro from Choshu in a mountain as Ryoma was going to see the battle ships, but I’m not sure whether this episode is true or not. Keeping readers a bit frustrated by Ryoma who is still just a swordsman, the story goes into the second volume.
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