type:論文

type:Article

宮沢賢治の作品のなかでも最も有名なものの一つである「銀河鉄道の夜」の物語のなかに「ケンタウル祭」という不思議な名前の祭りが登場する。物語の中心が星座をめぐる夢の旅であるため、この名はケンタウルス星座に因むものと考えられてきた。しかしこの名は賢治の若き日の短歌が初出であり、その内容や時期から星座には関係なく、ギリシャ神話の半人半馬の怪物ケンタウロスのドイツ語ケンタウルスをそのまま祭の名に用いたものであることがわかった。この時期、賢治は盛岡高等農林学校で馬の飼育管理とドイツ語を学んでおり、ちゃぐちゃぐ馬ッこをはじめとする馬産地岩手の人と馬との祭から発想したのである。また、キメラに関心があった賢治は人間の上半身と馬体の下半身をもつケンタウルを、理性と本能的欲望との葛藤に悩む自分になぞらえた。岩手と同じく、馬を祝福することで春の農耕の始まりに豊饒を祈るドイツにもある民俗を賢治はおそらく学び、若い男性としての高揚感をケンタウル祭と表したのである。のちに少年のための物語「銀河鉄道の夜」にこの名の祭を組み込むが、静謐な物語にはなじまず、結局は、削除されたり「銀河の祭」や「星祭」という名が加えられて、ケンタウル祭のイメージは希薄になってゆくのであった。

In "Night of the Galactic Train", one of the most famous works of Miyazawa Kenji, a festival with the strange name "Kentaur-Festival" appears. The central theme of the story is a dream about a journey to the stars, and so the name of the festival is interpreted as being related to the Centaurus-constellation. But this name appears for the first time in a tanka, written by the young Kenji, and in terms of content and time it has no connection with the constellation. In our understanding it is the figure of Kentaur, the German name for the half-man-half-horse figure of Greek mythology, who gave his name to the festival. When he was young, Kenji read about horse-breeding and the German language, and the "Chagu-chagu-umako" festival and other events of the horse-breeding culture of Iwate gave rise to the Kentaur-festival. Furthermore, being interested in the figure of chimera, Kenji took the Kentaur with its upper half of a man and lower half of a horse as a metaphor of the conflicts within himself between reason and sexual instincts. Like in Iwate, there are festivals in Germany too, where in the early spring horses are blessed in the hope of rich harvest. Kenji probably knew about this folklore and gave expression to the high feelings of his youth in the festival of the Kentaur. Later in his life, when he wrote the early drafts of "Night of the Galactic Train", he mentioned the Kentaur, but ultimately it did not fit to this quiet story for young readers, and so he took it out. What was left was the name of the festival, but the image of the figure itself faded.

identifier:4

identifier:KJ00007592499