#65 - A weak man.

Endo Shusaku

#65　遠藤周作『わたしが・棄てた・女』

友人、長島繁男は名前だけでは当今の有名な野球選手を連想させるけれども、あのように逞しく、タフで、イカす青年を想像されては困る。彼が裸になると薄い胸に肋骨が哀れに浮きだすのは食糧難の学生生活のせいで、長い間雑炊やスケソウダラしか食べさせられなかったためである。

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Vocabulary:

• 遠藤周作　　　えんどうしゅうさく　Endo Shusaku (author, 1923-1996)

• 友人　　　　　ゆうじん　　　　　　friend

• 長島繁男　　　ながしましげお　　　Nagashima Shigeo (name)

• 当今　　　　　とうこん　　　　　　at present, nowadays, these days

• 有名　　　　　ゆうめい　　　　　　famous

• 野球　　　　　やきゅう　　　　　　baseball

• 選手　　　　　せんしゅ　　　　　　player, athlete

• 連想する　　　れんそうする　　　　to associate

• 逞しい　　　　たくましい　　　　　burly, strong

• イカす　　　　　　　　　　　　　　to be cool, to be slick, to be stylish

• 青年　　　　　せいねん　　　　　　young man

• 想像する　　　そうぞうする　　　　to picture, to imagine

• 裸　　　　　　はだか　　　　　　　nude, naked body

• 薄い　　　　　うすい　　　　　　　weak, thin

• 胸　　　　　　むね　　　　　　　　chest

• 肋骨　　　　　あばらぼね　　　　　rib, ribs

• 哀れに　　　　あわれに　　　　　　pitifully

• 浮きだす　　　うきだす　　　　　　to stick out, to protrude, to stand out

• 食糧難　　　　しょくりょうなん　　food scarcity, difficulty getting food

• 学生生活　　　がくせいせいかつ　　student life, student days

• 長い間　　　　ながいあいだ　　　　for a long time, during a long period

• 雑炊　　　　　ぞうすい　　　　　　rice gruel

• スケソウダラ　　　　　　　　　　　walleye pollack (助惣鱈)

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Grammar:

1. 友人、長島繫男は…連想させる

   The structure of the sentence is a bit different from my translation. Because させる is a causative form, a more literal translation of the sentence would be: ‘As for my friend Nagashima Shigeo, he makes you associate him with…’. As this would result in an awkward translation, I altered the logistics of the sentence slightly.

2. されては困る

   The passive form here is a so-called meiwaku no ukemi (passive form of inconvenience). As such, it may be understood as: ‘If I am the recipient of [action X] then this will cause me bother’. This form has a different connotation from a regular passive form. An example:

   • パンが食べられた → the bread was eaten (regular passive form)

   • パンを食べられた → someone ate my bread and this caused me bother (meiwaku no ukemi)

   In this way, ～を想像されては困る literally means ‘if you imagine ～ then this would be a bother/an annoyance (to me).’ When translated in context, this grammatical pattern usually takes some form that indicates bother or inconvenience.

3. ～のは…のせいで、…ためである

   Literally, the structure of the sentence is: ‘The fact that… [his ribs stick out from his chest] is due to… [malnourishment], (and) because of… [a lack of healthy food]. When you keep this structure in mind, it becomes easier to deconstruct the sentence.

4. ～しか食べさせられなかった

   There is a lot going on here, so let’s break it down to make it simpler.

   • Step 1: 食べる + させる (causative) + られる (passive) = 食べさせられる

   • Step 2: しか + ない (‘nothing but…’) = しか食べさせられない

   • Step 3: put in past tense = しか食べさせられなかった

   First, step 1. The combination of a causative and a passive form is used to indicate that someone is made to, or forced to do something, usually due to circumstances or specific events. An example that you’ll see often is 考えさせられた (something ‘made me think (more deeply)’ about the subject that was presented, for instance, in a newspaper article).

   Step 2 simply applies the pattern of {しか + negative verb} on top of step 1. 食べさせられる therefore becomes しか食べさせられない, meaning ‘he is forced to eat nothing but…’.

   Step 3 puts the entire verb in the past tense → ～しか食べさせられなかった.

   This is a tough one, but once you break down all the elements, it becomes more understandable.

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Translation:

Looking only at his name, you would associate my friend Nagashima Shigeo with a now famous baseball player, but it would be wrong to picture such a young man, that burly, that tough, that cool. Whenever he gets undressed, his ribs stick out pitifully from his weak chest due to malnourishment in his student days, during which for a long time he was forced to eat nothing but things like rice gruel and walleye pollack.

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Amazon.jp link for the book I used:

遠藤周作『わたしが・棄てた・女』