Part 3 of 8 · JLPT N2
猫町（１（つづき）） Nekomachi, part 3: A Story That May Be Real
In this part
The narrator introduces the story he is about to tell as a key to the riddle he has been describing. If readers can imagine a hidden fourth-dimensional world behind appearances, the story is true; if not, it is only the hallucination of a morphine-addicted poet. He is no novelist, so he promises simply to report the facts as he experienced them.
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次に語る一つの話も、こうした私の謎に対して、或る解答を暗示する鍵になってる。The story I am about to tell is likewise a key that hints at a certain answer to this riddle of mine.
読者にしてもし、私の不思議な物語からして、事物と現象の背後に隠れているところの、或る第四次元の世界――景色の裏側の実在性――を仮想し得るとせば、この物語の一切は真実である。If you, the reader, can, on the basis of my strange tale, imagine a certain fourth-dimensional world hidden behind things and phenomena—the reality that lies on the far side of the scenery—then everything in this story is real.
だが諸君にして、もしそれを仮想し得ないとするならば、私の現実に経験した次の事実も、所詮はモルヒネ中毒に中枢を冒された一詩人の、取りとめもないデカダンスの幻覚にしか過ぎないだろう。But if you, gentlemen, cannot imagine such a thing, then the facts I actually experienced, which follow, will in the end be nothing more than the rambling, decadent hallucination of a poet whose nerve centres have been eaten away by morphine addiction.
とにかく私は、勇気を奮って書いて見よう。At any rate, I shall summon my courage and try to write it down.
ただ小説家でない私は、脚色や趣向によって、読者を興がらせる術を知らない。Only, not being a novelist, I do not know the art of entertaining readers with dramatic shaping or clever devices.
私の為し得ることは、ただ自分の経験した事実だけを、報告の記事に書くだけである。All I can do is simply write down, in the form of a report, only the facts I myself experienced.
Vocabulary
| Word | Meaning | JLPT |
|---|---|---|
| 謎なぞ | riddle, mystery | N3 |
| 暗示あんじ | hint, suggestion暗 "dark" + 示 "show": showing something indirectly. | N1 |
| 背後はいご | behind, the back (of something)Often figurative: what lies behind events. | N1 |
| 次元じげん | dimension第四次元 (だいよじげん) = the fourth dimension. | — |
| 実在性じつざいせい | reality, actual existenceA philosophical term; 〜性 makes an abstract noun, like English "-ity". | — |
| 仮想かそう | imagining, supposing, hypothesisToday also used for "virtual" (仮想現実 = virtual reality). | — |
| 真実しんじつ | real, true (here glossed レアール, from French réel)Here glossed with the ruby レアール, from French réel, "real". | N1 |
| 所詮しょせん | after all, in the endHas a resigned tone: "it is no more than…". | — |
| 冒されたおかす | to attack, affect (as a disease or poison does)dictionary form: 冒すDistinguish from 犯す (commit a crime) and 侵す (invade). | — |
| 取りとめもないとりとめもない | rambling, incoherent, without focus | — |
| 幻覚げんかく | hallucination | — |
| 奮ってふるう | to summon up, rouse (courage)dictionary form: 奮うSet phrase: 勇気を奮う = to summon one's courage. | — |
| 趣向しゅこう | clever device, artistic contrivance | — |
| 術すべ | means, way (of doing)Literary reading; read じゅつ it means "technique" or "art". | — |
Grammar
〜得る（うる／える） N2 can, be able to
Attached to a verb stem, 得る means "it is possible to". The dictionary form is read うる or える, but other forms like the negative are always え-: 得ない.
もしそれを仮想し得ないとするならば
if you cannot imagine such a thing
〜ところの N1 which, that (literary relative marker)
A bookish link between a modifying clause and its noun, modelled on European relative pronouns. It adds no meaning: 隠れているところの世界 is simply "the world that is hidden".
事物と現象の背後に隠れているところの、或る第四次元の世界
a certain fourth-dimensional world hidden behind things and phenomena
〜とするならば／〜とせば N2 if we suppose that…
とする (suppose) plus a conditional sets up a hypothesis. とせば in the previous sentence is an older, literary form of the same idea.
もしそれを仮想し得ないとするならば
if you cannot imagine such a thing
〜にしか過ぎない N3 is nothing more than
〜に過ぎない means "merely". Adding しか makes it stronger, and 所詮 earlier in the sentence adds resignation.
デカダンスの幻覚にしか過ぎないだろう
will be nothing more than a decadent hallucination
〜て見よう N4 let me try doing
The て-form plus みる means "try doing", and the volitional よう expresses resolve. Older texts often write みる in kanji as 見る.
勇気を奮って書いて見よう
I shall summon my courage and try to write it down