#195 亀井秀雄『日本人の「翻訳」』
江戸期を通じて、日本の漂流民は、それ自体が政治的な存在だった。徳川幕府が鎖国令を布いていたからである。
Vocabulary:
亀井秀雄 かめいひでお Kamei Hideo (literary scholar/critic, 1937-2016)
江戸期 えどき the Edo period
漂流民 ひょうりゅうみん drifter, outcast
政治的 せいじてき political
鎖国令 さこくれい order of national isolation/seclusion
布く しく to impose, to enforce
Translation:
Throughout the Edo period, Japan's drifters were a political entity in their own right. This was because the Tokugawa shogunate had imposed an order of national isolation.
Link for the text I used:
かめいs 【亀龜瓶 || 井居位】
【瓶】びん bottle, かめ earthen pot
•••
幕 まく theatre curtain
幕府 ばくふ shogunate
Took me a second to realize 「それ自体」is a set phrase... Curious about the grammar behind 「〜ていたからである」- I'm connecting it to the "This was because..." portion of the translation, but I get the impression it's more common in a literary context...