今の時代から見ると、明治維新というのは歴史の自然な流れの様に思えます。しかし、フランス革命やロシア革命と性質は異なるにせよ、倒幕運動というのは間違いなく一つの革命であり、それが達成されるためにはたくさんの命が費やされたのでした。
From the standpoint of modern people, it seems that Meiji Restoration happened in the course of events. It is true that the nature of the restoration is quite different from that of the French Revolution or the Russian Revolution, even so the anti-shogunate movement is surely a kind of revolution and it required so many lives of people concerned.
第5巻の裏表紙に書かれているあらすじは、次の通りです。
The summary written on the back cover of the fifth volume is as follows.
「池田屋の変、蛤御門ノ変と血なまぐさい事件が続き、時勢は急速に緊迫する。しかし幕府の屋台骨はゆるんだようにも見えない。まだ時期が早すぎるのだ……次々死んでゆく同志を想い、竜馬は暗涙にむせんだ。竜馬も窮迫した。心血を注いだ神戸海軍塾が幕府の手で解散させられてしまい、かれの壮大な計画も無に帰してしまった」
“The current of the times becomes tense rapidly through some bloody events such as Ikedaya no Hen, Hamagurigomon no Hen, and so on. However, The Tokugawa Shogunate’s foundation still seems to be firm. It is still too soon to do things like that……. Ryoma sheds silent tears thinking over the deaths of like-minded people. Ryoma is also in distress. His grandiose scheme came to nothing because Kobe Naval Training School, which Ryoma had rushed around to establish, was ordered to be dissolved by the shogunate.”
主人公の性格からか、この物語は明るい色合いを基調としています。しかし、この第5巻に描かれる出来事には、陰鬱な、冷たい印象しか感じられません。一体、どれだけの志士がその目的半ばで倒れ、死んでいったことでしょう。司馬遼太郎さんは、それらの志士の名前をできる限り記述しています。初めて読んだときは、それが冗長に思えて読みづらく感じていました。でも、この物語のよさは、むしろそのようなところにあると今では気付いています。私たちと同じ様に、彼ら一人一人には名前があり、家族があり、それぞれの人生を一生懸命生きていたのです。彼らの犠牲の上に成り立っている今の世に、私たちは生きています。歴史小説を読む意義はこんなところにあるのかもしれません。
This story has a light tone, in my opinion, due to the character of the protagonist. However, the events described in the fifth volume gives us a gloomy, cold impression. I wonder how many royalists died before achieving their ambition. Shiba Ryotaro mentioned their names as much as possible. I felt weary about such part when I first read this book. Now I know I was wrong because such part makes this book worth reading. They had their own names, their own family, and they lived their own lives as we do now. We live in the world built on the sacrifice of them. That’s why we read historical novels, I guess.
竜馬自身も、親友らを失い、神戸軍艦操練所が解散に追い込まれるなど、大きな挫折を経験します。しかし、彼の真の活躍は、それを越えた先に始まるのでした。
Ryoma also experiences setbacks such as loosing close friends, having to dissolve Kobe Naval Training School, and so on. However, his great activities starts when he overcomes those setbacks.
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