# Botchan, Chapter 1

坊っちゃん · Natsume Sōseki · Botchan

Source: https://1732studios.com/books/botchan/ch01. Data: https://1732studios.com/books/botchan/ch01.json. Audio: https://audio.1732studios.com/botchan/<line id>.m4a.


親譲りの無鉄砲で小供の時から損ばかりしている。  
Reckless by inheritance, I've been losing out on things since I was a kid.
> 「無鉄砲」: 「無鉄砲」 むてっぽう (muteppō) — reckless, headstrong, devil-may-care. The kanji read literally as 'without even an iron cannon,' but they're likely ateji (a phonetic respelling); one common theory traces the word to 無点法 (mutenpō, a kanbun text without reading marks, hence 'unclear, heedless'). it's the word that opens the book and defines Botchan's whole character.
小学校に居る時分学校の二階から飛び降りて一週間ほど腰を抜かした事がある。  
Back in primary school I once jumped from the second floor of the schoolhouse and was laid up unable to walk for about a week.
なぜそんな無闇をしたと聞く人があるかも知れぬ。  
Someone might ask why I did anything so reckless.
> ぬ as a literary negative: 「知れぬ」 ends in ぬ, the rentaikei (attributive) form of the classical negative auxiliary ず, equivalent to modern 「知れない」 ('one cannot know'). Meiji-era written narration mixes this literary ず/ぬ negative freely with the modern ない form — both appear in this same chapter.
別段深い理由でもない。  
There was no deep reason for it.
新築の二階から首を出していたら、同級生の一人が冗談に、いくら威張っても、そこから飛び降りる事は出来まい。  
I was leaning my head out of the new building's second floor when one of my classmates joked that no matter how big I talked, I'd never dare jump from there.
弱虫やーい。  
“Chicken!”
と囃したからである。  
It was because he taunted me like that.
小使に負ぶさって帰って来た時、おやじが大きな眼をして二階ぐらいから飛び降りて腰を抜かす奴があるかと云ったから、この次は抜かさずに飛んで見せますと答えた。  
When the school janitor carried me home on his back, my father glared at me and said, what kind of fool loses the use of his legs jumping off a mere second floor — so I told him next time I'd jump without losing the use of my legs.
> Polite ます in a defiant reply: Botchan's narration is almost entirely in the plain/literary style, but here — answering his father directly — he switches to the polite す/ます form: 「飛んで見せます」 ('I'll show you I can jump'). The politeness is aimed at his father, not the reader.

親類のものから西洋製のナイフを貰って奇麗な刃を日に翳して、友達に見せていたら、一人が光る事は光るが切れそうもないと云った。  
A relative once gave me a Western-made knife, and I was holding its bright blade up to the sun to show my friends, when one of them said it certainly shone, but it didn't look as if it could cut anything.
切れぬ事があるか、何でも切ってみせると受け合った。  
Not cut? I swore I could cut anything with it.
> 「受け合う」: 「受け合う」 うけあう (ukeau) — to guarantee, vouch for, take on (a bet or claim). Botchan 'guarantees' he can cut anything — the boast that costs him a scar.
そんなら君の指を切ってみろと注文したから、何だ指ぐらいこの通りだと右の手の親指の甲をはすに切り込んだ。  
So he dared me to cut my own finger, and I said a finger was nothing and sliced diagonally across the back of my right thumb.
幸ナイフが小さいのと、親指の骨が堅かったので、今だに親指は手に付いている。  
Luckily the knife was small and my thumb bone was hard, so the thumb is still attached to my hand to this day.
しかし創痕は死ぬまで消えぬ。  
But the scar will never fade as long as I live.

庭を東へ二十歩に行き尽すと、南上がりにいささかばかりの菜園があって、真中に栗の木が一本立っている。  
Twenty paces east across our garden, on a little rise facing south, there was a small vegetable patch, and right in the middle of it stood a single chestnut tree.
これは命より大事な栗だ。  
That chestnut tree mattered to me more than my own life.
> Copula だ: blunt, plain-style: だ is the plain, informal copula ('is'). Botchan's narration leans on blunt だ for short, punchy assertions like this one — contrast the more formal である a few sentences later.
実の熟する時分は起き抜けに背戸を出て落ちた奴を拾ってきて、学校で食う。  
When the nuts ripened I'd go out the back door first thing in the morning, gather up the fallen ones, and eat them at school.
菜園の西側が山城屋という質屋の庭続きで、この質屋に勘太郎という十三四の倅が居た。  
The west side of the vegetable patch bordered the garden of a pawnshop called Yamashiroya, and that pawnshop had a son named Kantarō, about thirteen or fourteen.
勘太郎は無論弱虫である。  
Kantarō, needless to say, was a coward.
> Copula である vs. だ: である is the more formal/written register of the copula 'to be'. Meiji prose narration often alternates だ and である sentence by sentence for rhythm; both mean the same thing, but である reads slightly more detached and essayistic.
弱虫の癖に四つ目垣を乗りこえて、栗を盗みにくる。  
Coward though he was, he'd climb over the lattice fence to steal my chestnuts.
ある日の夕方折戸の蔭に隠れて、とうとう勘太郎を捕まえてやった。  
One evening I hid behind the wicket gate and finally caught him at it.
その時勘太郎は逃げ路を失って、一生懸命に飛びかかってきた。  
With no way to escape, Kantarō threw himself at me with all his might.
向うは二つばかり年上である。  
He was about two years older than me.
弱虫だが力は強い。  
Coward though he was, he was strong.
鉢の開いた頭を、こっちの胸へ宛ててぐいぐい押した拍子に、勘太郎の頭がすべって、おれの袷の袖の中にはいった。  
He rammed his broad skull against my chest and shoved hard, and in the scuffle his head slipped and ended up inside the sleeve of my lined kimono.
邪魔になって手が使えぬから、無暗に手を振ったら、袖の中にある勘太郎の頭が、右左へぐらぐら靡いた。  
With my arm trapped and useless, I flailed it wildly, and Kantarō's head, stuck inside the sleeve, wobbled from side to side.
しまいに苦しがって袖の中から、おれの二の腕へ食い付いた。  
In the end, in his distress, he bit my upper arm right through the sleeve.
痛かったから勘太郎を垣根へ押しつけておいて、足搦をかけて向うへ倒してやった。  
It hurt, so I shoved him against the fence, hooked my leg around his, and threw him down on the other side.
山城屋の地面は菜園より六尺がた低い。  
The ground on the Yamashiroya side was a good six feet lower than our vegetable patch.
勘太郎は四つ目垣を半分崩して、自分の領分へ真逆様に落ちて、ぐうと云った。  
Kantarō knocked half the lattice fence down and fell headfirst back into his own territory, letting out a groan.
勘太郎が落ちるときに、おれの袷の片袖がもげて、急に手が自由になった。  
As Kantarō fell, one sleeve of my kimono tore clean off, and my arm was suddenly free.
その晩母が山城屋に詫びに行ったついでに袷の片袖も取り返して来た。  
That night my mother went to Yamashiroya to apologize, and while she was at it, brought the torn-off sleeve back home.

この外いたずらは大分やった。  
Besides that I got up to plenty of other mischief.
大工の兼公と肴屋の角をつれて、茂作の人参畠をあらした事がある。  
Once I took Kanekō the carpenter's boy and Kaku the fishmonger's boy along and trampled Mosaku's carrot field.
人参の芽が出揃わぬ処へ藁が一面に敷いてあったから、その上で三人が半日相撲をとりつづけに取ったら、人参がみんな踏みつぶされてしまった。  
The carrot shoots hadn't fully come up yet, and straw had been spread over the whole plot, so the three of us wrestled on top of it for half a day straight, and every last carrot got trampled flat.
> Passive + てしまう: れる/られる marks the passive ('the carrots were trampled'), and てしまう (here past: しまった) adds a nuance of an unwanted, irreversible completion — together, 'the carrots all ended up getting trampled flat', with a rueful finality.
古川の持っている田圃の井戸を埋めて尻を持ち込まれた事もある。  
There was also the time I filled in the well in Furukawa's rice paddy and got hauled over the coals for it.
太い孟宗の節を抜いて、深く埋めた中から水が湧き出て、そこいらの稲にみずがかかる仕掛であった。  
He'd hollowed out a thick moso-bamboo pipe and buried it deep, so that water welled up out of it and watered the rice all around.
その時分はどんな仕掛か知らぬから、石や棒ちぎれをぎゅうぎゅう井戸の中へ挿し込んで、水が出なくなったのを見届けて、うちへ帰って飯を食っていたら、古川が真赤になって怒鳴り込んで来た。  
Back then I had no idea what the contraption was for, so I jammed stones and broken sticks tight into the hole, made sure the water had stopped, and went home to eat — and while I was eating, Furukawa came storming in, red in the face.
たしか罰金を出して済んだようである。  
As I recall, it was settled with a fine of some kind.

おやじはちっともおれを可愛がってくれなかった。  
My father never doted on me in the slightest.
母は兄ばかり贔屓にしていた。  
My mother favored only my older brother.
この兄はやに色が白くって、芝居の真似をして女形になるのが好きだった。  
This brother of mine had unusually pale skin and loved play-acting female roles from the theater.
> 「女形」: 「女形」 おやま (oyama), also read おんながた (onnagata) — the male actor who plays female roles in kabuki. Botchan's brother's taste for it marks him, in Botchan's eyes, as soft and unmanly.
おれを見る度にこいつはどうせ碌なものにはならないと、おやじが云った。  
Every time he looked at me, my father would say this one will never amount to anything.
乱暴で乱暴で行く先が案じられると母が云った。  
So wild, so wild, I worry what will become of him, my mother would say.
なるほど碌なものにはならない。  
Sure enough, I haven't amounted to anything.
ご覧の通りの始末である。  
Just look at the state I'm in now.
行く先が案じられたのも無理はない。  
No wonder she worried about what would become of me.
ただ懲役に行かないで生きているばかりである。  
About the only thing I've managed is to stay out of prison.

母が病気で死ぬ二三日前台所で宙返りをしてへっついの角で肋骨を撲って大いに痛かった。  
Two or three days before my mother died of her illness, I turned a somersault in the kitchen and struck my ribs on the corner of the stove, which hurt terribly.
母が大層怒って、お前のようなものの顔は見たくないと云うから、親類へ泊りに行っていた。  
My mother was furious and said she never wanted to see my face again, so I went and stayed over at a relative's house.
するととうとう死んだと云う報知が来た。  
Then word came that she had finally died.
そう早く死ぬとは思わなかった。  
I hadn't thought she would die so soon.
そんな大病なら、もう少し大人しくすればよかったと思って帰って来た。  
If it was that serious, I thought, I should have behaved a little better, and went home thinking so.
そうしたら例の兄がおれを親不孝だ、おれのために、おっかさんが早く死んだんだと云った。  
When I got there, my brother told me I was an undutiful son and that it was because of me our mother had died early.
> 「親不孝」: 「親不孝」 おやふこう (oyafukō) — unfilial, failing one's duty to one's parents. A serious moral charge in Meiji Japan, where filial piety (孝, kō) was a core Confucian value — which is exactly why it stings Botchan enough to make him hit his brother.
口惜しかったから、兄の横っ面を張って大変叱られた。  
That stung, so I slapped him across the face and got scolded terribly for it.

母が死んでからは、おやじと兄と三人で暮していた。  
After our mother died, the three of us — my father, my brother, and I — lived together.
おやじは何にもせぬ男で、人の顔さえ見れば貴様は駄目だ駄目だと口癖のように云っていた。  
My father was a man who did nothing at all, and whenever he saw my face, he'd say as if by habit, you're no good, no good.
> 「貴様」: 「貴様」 きさま (kisama) — literally an old honorific for 'you', but by the Meiji era it had flipped into a rough, contemptuous way of addressing someone. Botchan's father uses it on his own son, underscoring how little warmth is in the house.
何が駄目なんだか今に分らない。  
To this day I don't know what exactly was supposed to be no good.
妙なおやじがあったもんだ。  
What a strange father to have had.
兄は実業家になるとか云ってしきりに英語を勉強していた。  
My brother, saying he meant to become a businessman, studied English constantly.
元来女のような性分で、ずるいから、仲がよくなかった。  
He had a womanish temperament to begin with, and a sly streak, so the two of us never got along.
十日に一遍ぐらいの割で喧嘩をしていた。  
We fought about once every ten days.
ある時将棋をさしたら卑怯な待駒をして、人が困ると嬉しそうに冷やかした。  
Once, playing shogi, he made some cowardly waiting move, and when I got stuck he jeered at me, looking pleased with himself.
あんまり腹が立ったから、手に在った飛車を眉間へ擲きつけてやった。  
I was so angry I flung the rook I was holding straight at his forehead.
> 「眉間」: 「眉間」 みけん (miken) — the spot between the eyebrows, the forehead. Botchan flings the shogi rook straight at it — a small, vivid, very physical detail of a comically violent household.
眉間が割れて少々血が出た。  
It split his brow open and drew a little blood.
兄がおやじに言付けた。  
My brother went and told our father.
おやじがおれを勘当すると言い出した。  
My father announced he was going to disown me.

その時はもう仕方がないと観念して先方の云う通り勘当されるつもりでいたら、十年来召し使っている清という下女が、泣きながらおやじに詫まって、ようやくおやじの怒りが解けた。  
By then I'd resigned myself to it and was ready to be disowned just as he said, when Kiyo, the maid who had served us for ten years, tearfully pleaded with my father for me, and at last his anger cooled.
> Passive れる + つもり: 勘当される is the passive of 勘当する ('to disown'): 'to be disowned'. つもり after a verb expresses intention/resignation — 'I was resigned to being disowned', not that it had happened yet.
それにもかかわらずあまりおやじを怖いとは思わなかった。  
Even so, I never really found my father frightening.
かえってこの清と云う下女に気の毒であった。  
If anything, I felt sorry for Kiyo, the maid.
この下女はもと由緒のあるものだったそうだが、瓦解のときに零落して、つい奉公までするようになったのだと聞いている。  
I gather this maid had once come from a respectable family, but fell on hard times during the collapse of the old order and ended up in service.
だから婆さんである。  
So she was already an old woman.
この婆さんがどういう因縁か、おれを非常に可愛がってくれた。  
For whatever reason, this old woman doted on me tremendously.
不思議なものである。  
It's a strange thing, really.
母も死ぬ三日前に愛想をつかした――おやじも年中持て余している――町内では乱暴者の悪太郎と爪弾きをする――このおれを無暗に珍重してくれた。  
Even my mother had given up on me three days before she died — my father was forever at his wit's end with me — the whole neighborhood shunned me as the local troublemaker — and yet this same me, she treasured beyond all reason.
おれは到底人に好かれる性でないとあきらめていたから、他人から木の端のように取り扱われるのは何とも思わない、かえってこの清のようにちやほやしてくれるのを不審に考えた。  
I had already resigned myself to being the kind of person nobody could like, so being treated like a piece of scrap wood by others didn't bother me at all — if anything, it was Kiyo fussing over me like this that struck me as odd.
清は時々台所で人の居ない時に「あなたは真っ直でよいご気性だ」と賞める事が時々あった。  
Now and then, in the kitchen when no one else was around, Kiyo would praise me, saying, you have such a straightforward, fine nature.
> Honorific prefix ご + noun: ご attached to a Sino-Japanese noun (here 気性, 'temperament') is the honorific prefix used when praising or referring respectfully to someone — Kiyo's speech to Botchan is full of small keigo touches like this, even though he's just a boy in her care.
しかしおれには清の云う意味が分からなかった。  
But I couldn't make sense of what she meant by it.
好い気性なら清以外のものも、もう少し善くしてくれるだろうと思った。  
If I really had a fine nature, I thought, people besides Kiyo would surely treat me a little better too.
清がこんな事を云う度におれはお世辞は嫌いだと答えるのが常であった。  
Whenever Kiyo said things like this, I would always answer that I hated flattery.
すると婆さんはそれだから好いご気性ですと云っては、嬉しそうにおれの顔を眺めている。  
To which the old woman would say, that's exactly why you have such a fine nature, and gaze happily at my face.
自分の力でおれを製造して誇ってるように見える。  
She seemed almost proud, as if she had built me herself with her own hands.
少々気味がわるかった。  
It gave me a slightly uneasy feeling.

母が死んでから清はいよいよおれを可愛がった。  
After my mother died, Kiyo doted on me more than ever.
時々は小供心になぜあんなに可愛がるのかと不審に思った。  
Sometimes, with a child's simple mind, I wondered why she doted on me so.
つまらない、廃せばいいのにと思った。  
It seemed pointless to me; I wished she'd just stop.
気の毒だと思った。  
I felt bad for her, too.
それでも清は可愛がる。  
Still, Kiyo went on doting.
折々は自分の小遣いで金鍔や紅梅焼を買ってくれる。  
Every so often she'd spend her own pocket money to buy me kintsuba or kōbaiyaki sweets.
寒い夜などはひそかに蕎麦粉を仕入れておいて、いつの間にか寝ている枕元へ蕎麦湯を持って来てくれる。  
On cold nights she'd secretly lay in buckwheat flour, and before I knew it she'd bring hot soba-yu to my pillow while I slept.
時には鍋焼饂飩さえ買ってくれた。  
Sometimes she even bought me nabeyaki udon.
ただ食い物ばかりではない。  
And it wasn't only food.
靴足袋ももらった。  
I got tabi socks for shoes from her too.
鉛筆も貰った、帳面も貰った。  
I got pencils from her, I got notebooks from her.
これはずっと後の事であるが金を三円ばかり貸してくれた事さえある。  
This was much later, but there was even a time she lent me as much as three yen.
何も貸せと云った訳ではない。  
It wasn't that I'd asked her to lend it to me.
向うで部屋へ持って来てお小遣いがなくてお困りでしょう、お使いなさいと云ってくれたんだ。  
She brought it to my room on her own and said, you must be short on spending money, please use this.
おれは無論入らないと云ったが、是非使えと云うから、借りておいた。  
I told her of course I didn't need it, but she insisted I use it, so I borrowed it.
実は大変嬉しかった。  
Honestly, I was overjoyed.
その三円を蝦蟇口へ入れて、懐へ入れたなり便所へ行ったら、すぽりと後架の中へ落してしまった。  
I put the three yen in a coin purse, tucked it into my kimono, and went to the privy — and it slipped clean down into the toilet pit.
> 「蝦蟇口」: 「蝦蟇口」 がまぐち (gamaguchi) — a metal-clasp coin purse, named for its resemblance to a toad's (蝦蟇, gama) wide mouth (口, kuchi) when it snaps open.
仕方がないから、のそのそ出てきて実はこれこれだと清に話したところが、清は早速竹の棒を捜して来て、取って上げますと云った。  
With no choice, I came shuffling out and told Kiyo what had happened, and she went right off to find a bamboo pole, saying she'd fish it out for me.
しばらくすると井戸端でざあざあ音がするから、出てみたら竹の先へ蝦蟇口の紐を引き懸けたのを水で洗っていた。  
After a while I heard splashing at the well, and going to look, found her rinsing the purse in water, its cord hooked on the end of the bamboo pole.
> 「井戸端」: 「井戸端」 いどばた (idobata) — literally 'the well's edge', where Meiji-era housewives gathered to draw water and trade news; 井戸端会議 ('well-side conference') is still the standard word for idle gossip.
それから口をあけて壱円札を改めたら茶色になって模様が消えかかっていた。  
Then she opened it up and checked the one-yen notes inside, and they had turned brown, their patterns nearly worn away.
清は火鉢で乾かして、これでいいでしょうと出した。  
Kiyo dried them over the brazier and handed them to me, saying this should do.
ちょっとかいでみて臭いやと云ったら、それじゃお出しなさい、取り換えて来て上げますからと、どこでどう胡魔化したか札の代りに銀貨を三円持って来た。  
I sniffed them and said they stank, so she said, well then, hand them over, I'll go exchange them for you — and however she managed it, she came back with three yen in silver coins instead of the notes.
この三円は何に使ったか忘れてしまった。  
I've forgotten what I ever spent that three yen on.
今に返すよと云ったぎり、返さない。  
I said I'd pay her back sometime, and that was the last of it — I never did.
今となっては十倍にして返してやりたくても返せない。  
Now, even if I wanted to pay her back tenfold, I can't.

清が物をくれる時には必ずおやじも兄も居ない時に限る。  
Whenever Kiyo gave me something, it was always at a moment when neither my father nor my brother was around.
おれは何が嫌いだと云って人に隠れて自分だけ得をするほど嫌いな事はない。  
If there's one thing I hate above all, it's profiting on the sly behind other people's backs.
兄とは無論仲がよくないけれども、兄に隠して清から菓子や色鉛筆を貰いたくはない。  
I certainly wasn't on good terms with my brother, but even so I didn't want to take sweets or colored pencils from Kiyo behind his back.
なぜ、おれ一人にくれて、兄さんには遣らないのかと清に聞く事がある。  
So sometimes I'd ask Kiyo why she gave things to me alone and not to my brother.
すると清は澄したものでお兄様はお父様が買ってお上げなさるから構いませんと云う。  
And Kiyo would answer coolly, it's fine, your brother has your father buying for him.
> Honorific お…なさる: お + verb stem + なさる is a respectful (sonkeigo) construction for another person's action — here Kiyo uses it of Botchan's father buying things for the brother. Even her homely dialogue carries these small honorific markers.
これは不公平である。  
That struck me as unfair.
おやじは頑固だけれども、そんな依怙贔負はせぬ男だ。  
My father was stubborn, but he wasn't the kind of man to play favorites like that.
しかし清の眼から見るとそう見えるのだろう。  
But I suppose that's how it looked, through Kiyo's eyes.
全く愛に溺れていたに違いない。  
She must simply have been blinded by affection.
元は身分のあるものでも教育のない婆さんだから仕方がない。  
She may have come from a good family once, but she was an uneducated old woman, so there was no helping it.
単にこればかりではない。  
And it wasn't only this.
贔負目は恐ろしいものだ。  
Favoritism is a fearsome thing.
清はおれをもって将来立身出世して立派なものになると思い込んでいた。  
Kiyo had convinced herself that I would rise in the world and become someone splendid.
その癖勉強をする兄は色ばかり白くって、とても役には立たないと一人できめてしまった。  
And yet she'd decided all on her own that my brother, for all his studying, was just pale-faced and would never amount to anything useful.
こんな婆さんに逢っては叶わない。  
There was no arguing with an old woman like that.
自分の好きなものは必ずえらい人物になって、嫌いなひとはきっと落ち振れるものと信じている。  
She believed that whoever she liked was bound to become great, and whoever she disliked was bound to come to ruin.
おれはその時から別段何になると云う了見もなかった。  
At the time, I myself had no particular idea what I meant to become.
しかし清がなるなると云うものだから、やっぱり何かに成れるんだろうと思っていた。  
But since Kiyo kept saying I'd become something, I somehow came to think I probably would become something after all.
今から考えると馬鹿馬鹿しい。  
Looking back on it now, it's absurd.
ある時などは清にどんなものになるだろうと聞いてみた事がある。  
There was even a time I asked Kiyo what she thought I'd become.
ところが清にも別段の考えもなかったようだ。  
But it seemed she hadn't any particular idea either.
ただ手車へ乗って、立派な玄関のある家をこしらえるに相違ないと云った。  
She only said that surely I'd ride around in a rickshaw and build myself a house with a fine entrance hall.

それから清はおれがうちでも持って独立したら、一所になる気でいた。  
After that, Kiyo made up her mind that once I had a household of my own and was independent, she'd come live with me.
どうか置いて下さいと何遍も繰り返して頼んだ。  
Please, do take me in, she begged me over and over.
おれも何だかうちが持てるような気がして、うん置いてやると返事だけはしておいた。  
I too somehow got the feeling I really would have a house of my own someday, so I'd answer, sure, I'll take you in.
ところがこの女はなかなか想像の強い女で、あなたはどこがお好き、麹町ですか麻布ですか、お庭へぶらんこをおこしらえ遊ばせ、西洋間は一つでたくさんですなどと勝手な計画を独りで並べていた。  
But this woman had a formidable imagination, and she'd lay out her own plans quite freely — which part of town would you like, Kōjimachi or Azabu, please have a swing put up in the garden, one Western-style room ought to be plenty.
その時は家なんか欲しくも何ともなかった。  
At the time I didn't want a house of any kind at all.
西洋館も日本建も全く不用であったから、そんなものは欲しくないと、いつでも清に答えた。  
A Western house or a Japanese one, either way I had no use for it, so I always told Kiyo I didn't want any such thing.
すると、あなたは欲がすくなくって、心が奇麗だと云ってまた賞めた。  
To which she'd say, you want for so little, your heart is so pure, and praise me all over again.
清は何と云っても賞めてくれる。  
No matter what I said, Kiyo always found a way to praise me for it.

母が死んでから五六年の間はこの状態で暮していた。  
For five or six years after my mother's death, I went on living like this.
おやじには叱られる。  
Scolded by my father.
兄とは喧嘩をする。  
Fighting with my brother.
清には菓子を貰う、時々賞められる。  
Given sweets by Kiyo, praised now and then.
別に望みもない。  
I had no particular wishes beyond that.
これでたくさんだと思っていた。  
I thought this much was enough.
ほかの小供も一概にこんなものだろうと思っていた。  
I supposed other children's lives were, on the whole, much the same.
ただ清が何かにつけて、あなたはお可哀想だ、不仕合だと無暗に云うものだから、それじゃ可哀想で不仕合せなんだろうと思った。  
Only Kiyo, on every occasion, kept insisting you poor thing, how unfortunate you are, so I supposed I must indeed be pitiful and unfortunate.
その外に苦になる事は少しもなかった。  
Beyond that, nothing troubled me in the least.
ただおやじが小遣いをくれないには閉口した。  
Except that my father never giving me pocket money did wear me down.

母が死んでから六年目の正月におやじも卒中で亡くなった。  
In the New Year of the sixth year after my mother died, my father too passed away, of a stroke.
その年の四月におれはある私立の中学校を卒業する。  
That April I graduated from a certain private middle school.
六月に兄は商業学校を卒業した。  
In June my brother graduated from a business school.
兄は何とか会社の九州の支店に口があって行かなければならん。  
My brother had landed a position at the Kyushu branch of some company or other and had to go there.
おれは東京でまだ学問をしなければならない。  
I still had studies to finish in Tokyo.
兄は家を売って財産を片付けて任地へ出立すると云い出した。  
My brother announced he would sell the house, settle up our affairs, and set off for his posting.
おれはどうでもするがよかろうと返事をした。  
I answered that he could do as he liked.
どうせ兄の厄介になる気はない。  
I had no intention of depending on my brother anyway.
世話をしてくれるにしたところで、喧嘩をするから、向うでも何とか云い出すに極っている。  
Even if he did look after me, we'd only fight, and he was bound to have something to say about it sooner or later.
なまじい保護を受ければこそ、こんな兄に頭を下げなければならない。  
It's precisely because the protection would be so half-hearted that I'd have to bow my head to a brother like that.
> 「なまじい」: 「なまじい」 (namajii) — half-heartedly, in a way that does more harm than good; 'ill-advised(ly)'. Botchan uses it to say that half-hearted charity from his brother would only humiliate him.
牛乳配達をしても食ってられると覚悟をした。  
I resolved that even delivering milk, I could get by.
兄はそれから道具屋を呼んで来て、先祖代々の瓦落多を二束三文に売った。  
My brother then called in a secondhand dealer and sold off our ancestors' old junk for next to nothing.
家屋敷はある人の周旋である金満家に譲った。  
The house and land he handed over, through someone's brokering, to some wealthy man.
この方は大分金になったようだが、詳しい事は一向知らぬ。  
That side of things seems to have brought in a fair sum, but I know nothing of the details.
おれは一ヶ月以前から、しばらく前途の方向のつくまで神田の小川町へ下宿していた。  
A month earlier already, until I could decide on some direction for my future, I had taken lodgings in Ogawamachi, Kanda.
清は十何年居たうちが人手に渡るのを大いに残念がったが、自分のものでないから、仕様がなかった。  
Kiyo was terribly sorry to see the house she'd lived in for more than ten years pass into someone else's hands, but since it wasn't hers to keep, there was nothing to be done.
あなたがもう少し年をとっていらっしゃれば、ここがご相続が出来ますものをとしきりに口説いていた。  
If only you were a little older, you could have inherited this place, she kept saying, over and over.
もう少し年をとって相続が出来るものなら、今でも相続が出来るはずだ。  
If getting a little older were all it took to inherit, then I could inherit it just as well now.
婆さんは何も知らないから年さえ取れば兄の家がもらえると信じている。  
But the old woman didn't understand any of that, and believed that if I only grew old enough, my brother's house would come to me.

兄とおれはかように分れたが、困ったのは清の行く先である。  
My brother and I parted ways like this, but the trouble was what would become of Kiyo.
兄は無論連れて行ける身分でなし、清も兄の尻にくっ付いて九州下りまで出掛ける気は毛頭なし、と云ってこの時のおれは四畳半の安下宿に籠って、それすらもいざとなれば直ちに引き払わねばならぬ始末だ。  
My brother, of course, was in no position to take her along, and Kiyo herself hadn't the slightest wish to tag after him all the way down to Kyushu — and as for me, I was holed up in a cheap four-and-a-half-mat lodging room, and even that I'd have to give up the moment push came to shove.
> 「毛頭もない」 idiom: 「毛頭（も）…なし/ない」 literally 'not even a hair's-tip (worth)' — 'not in the least, not remotely'. A vivid intensifier for total absence, here of Kiyo's wish to follow the brother to Kyushu.
どうする事も出来ん。  
There was nothing to be done about it.
清に聞いてみた。  
I asked Kiyo what she meant to do.
どこかへ奉公でもする気かねと云ったらあなたがおうちを持って、奥さまをお貰いになるまでは、仕方がないから、甥の厄介になりましょうとようやく決心した返事をした。  
When I asked whether she meant to go into service somewhere, she finally gave a decided answer: until you have a house of your own and take a wife, there's nothing for it — I'll go depend on my nephew.
この甥は裁判所の書記でまず今日には差支えなく暮していたから、今までも清に来るなら来いと二三度勧めたのだが、清はたとい下女奉公はしても年来住み馴れた家の方がいいと云って応じなかった。  
This nephew was a court clerk who by now got by comfortably enough, and he had already urged her two or three times to come if she liked, but Kiyo had refused, saying she'd rather stay in service in the house she'd grown used to over the years than come to him.
しかし今の場合知らぬ屋敷へ奉公易えをして入らぬ気兼を仕直すより、甥の厄介になる方がましだと思ったのだろう。  
But now, I suppose, she'd decided it was better to depend on her nephew than to change service to some unfamiliar household and go through all that needless awkwardness again.
それにしても早くうちを持ての、妻を貰えの、来て世話をするのと云う。  
Even so, she kept telling me to hurry up and get a house, take a wife, and let her come and look after me.
親身の甥よりも他人のおれの方が好きなのだろう。  
I suppose she was fonder of me, a stranger, than of her own flesh-and-blood nephew.

九州へ立つ二日前兄が下宿へ来て金を六百円出してこれを資本にして商買をするなり、学資にして勉強をするなり、どうでも随意に使うがいい、その代りあとは構わないと云った。  
Two days before he left for Kyushu, my brother came to my lodgings, handed me six hundred yen, and said, use it however you like — set yourself up in business with it or use it for your schooling — but after this, don't expect anything more from me.
兄にしては感心なやり方だ、何の六百円ぐらい貰わんでも困りはせんと思ったが、例に似ぬ淡泊な処置が気に入ったから、礼を云って貰っておいた。  
For my brother it was an admirably generous move; I thought I could get along fine without his six hundred yen, but this uncharacteristically clean, no-strings way of handling things pleased me, so I thanked him and accepted it.
兄はそれから五十円出してこれをついでに清に渡してくれと云ったから、異議なく引き受けた。  
He then took out fifty yen more and asked me to pass it on to Kiyo while I was at it, which I agreed to without objection.
二日立って新橋の停車場で分れたぎり兄にはその後一遍も逢わない。  
Two days later, we parted at Shimbashi Station, and I haven't seen my brother once since.

おれは六百円の使用法について寝ながら考えた。  
I lay in bed thinking over what to do with the six hundred yen.
商買をしたって面倒くさくって旨く出来るものじゃなし、ことに六百円の金で商買らしい商買がやれる訳でもなかろう。  
Going into business would just be a bother and I'd never manage it well, and besides, six hundred yen was hardly enough to run any business worth the name.
よしやれるとしても、今のようじゃ人の前へ出て教育を受けたと威張れないからつまり損になるばかりだ。  
Even if I could manage it, as things stood I couldn't stand before people and boast of having had an education, so in the end it would only work against me.
資本などはどうでもいいから、これを学資にして勉強してやろう。  
Never mind capital — I'd use it as school money instead and go on studying.
六百円を三に割って一年に二百円ずつ使えば三年間は勉強が出来る。  
Splitting six hundred yen three ways, at two hundred a year, I could study for three years.
三年間一生懸命にやれば何か出来る。  
If I worked at it hard for three years, I'd surely come out as something.
それからどこの学校へはいろうと考えたが、学問は生来どれもこれも好きでない。  
Then I turned to thinking which school I'd enter, but by nature I didn't care for any field of study at all.
ことに語学とか文学とか云うものは真平ご免だ。  
Languages, literature, that sort of thing especially — no thank you.
> 「真平ご免だ」: 「真平ご免」 まっぴらごめん (mappira gomen) — 'absolutely not, no thank you, I flatly refuse'. A stock idiom of blunt refusal that fits Botchan's brusque narration.
新体詩などと来ては二十行あるうちで一行も分らない。  
As for the new-style poetry, out of twenty lines I couldn't make sense of even one.
どうせ嫌いなものなら何をやっても同じ事だと思ったが、幸い物理学校の前を通り掛ったら生徒募集の広告が出ていたから、何も縁だと思って規則書をもらってすぐ入学の手続きをしてしまった。  
If I disliked everything equally anyway, I figured it hardly mattered which I picked, and as luck would have it, passing by the physics school one day I saw a notice recruiting students, so I decided it must be fate, picked up their prospectus, and went straight ahead and enrolled.
今考えるとこれも親譲りの無鉄砲から起った失策だ。  
Thinking about it now, this too was a blunder born of that same recklessness I inherited from my father.

三年間まあ人並に勉強はしたが別段たちのいい方でもないから、席順はいつでも下から勘定する方が便利であった。  
For three years I studied about as much as the next fellow, but since I was never especially good at it, it was always more convenient to count my class rank from the bottom.
しかし不思議なもので、三年立ったらとうとう卒業してしまった。  
Yet, strange as it is, when the three years were up I somehow ended up graduating after all.
自分でも可笑しいと思ったが苦情を云う訳もないから大人しく卒業しておいた。  
I found it funny myself, but since there was no reason to complain, I graduated quietly and left it at that.

卒業してから八日目に校長が呼びに来たから、何か用だろうと思って、出掛けて行ったら、四国辺のある中学校で数学の教師が入る。  
Eight days after graduation the principal sent for me, and thinking it must be about something, I went along, and it turned out a certain middle school somewhere in Shikoku needed a mathematics teacher.
月給は四十円だが、行ってはどうだという相談である。  
The salary was forty yen a month, and the question was whether I'd like to go.
おれは三年間学問はしたが実を云うと教師になる気も、田舎へ行く考えも何もなかった。  
I had studied for three years, but to tell the truth I'd had no notion of becoming a teacher, nor any thought of going out to the countryside.
もっとも教師以外に何をしようと云うあてもなかったから、この相談を受けた時、行きましょうと即席に返事をした。  
Then again, I had no other prospect in mind besides teaching, so when the offer came I answered on the spot, all right, I'll go.
これも親譲りの無鉄砲が祟ったのである。  
This too was the curse of that recklessness inherited from my father.
> 「祟る」: 「祟る」 たたる (tataru) — for a curse, grudge, or wrongdoing to come back and cause harm later. Botchan blames his father's inherited recklessness (無鉄砲) as the 'curse' behind his own rash decisions — the same word from the opening line, echoed here.

引き受けた以上は赴任せねばならぬ。  
Having accepted, I had no choice but to take up the post.
この三年間は四畳半に蟄居して小言はただの一度も聞いた事がない。  
For those three years, cooped up in a four-and-a-half-mat room, I hadn't been scolded even once.
> 「蟄居」: 「蟄居」 ちっきょ (chikkyo) — to shut oneself away, live in seclusion; historically a genteel house-arrest punishment for samurai. Using it for his own three years of quiet cramming is a wry, mock-heroic touch.
喧嘩もせずに済んだ。  
I'd gotten through them without fighting, too.
おれの生涯のうちでは比較的呑気な時節であった。  
Of my whole life so far, it was a comparatively easy-going stretch.
しかしこうなると四畳半も引き払わなければならん。  
But now, as things stood, I'd have to give up even that four-and-a-half-mat room.
生れてから東京以外に踏み出したのは、同級生と一所に鎌倉へ遠足した時ばかりである。  
Since the day I was born, the only time I'd ever set foot outside Tokyo was a class excursion to Kamakura with my schoolmates.
今度は鎌倉どころではない。  
This time it was nothing so tame as Kamakura.
大変な遠くへ行かねばならぬ。  
I had to go a tremendous distance away.
地図で見ると海浜で針の先ほど小さく見える。  
On the map it was a spot by the sea, no bigger than the point of a needle.
どうせ碌な所ではあるまい。  
It couldn't possibly be much of a place.
どんな町で、どんな人が住んでるか分らん。  
What kind of town it was, what kind of people lived there, I had no idea.
分らんでも困らない。  
Not knowing didn't trouble me.
心配にはならぬ。  
I felt no anxiety about it.
ただ行くばかりである。  
There was nothing to do but go.
もっとも少々面倒臭い。  
Though I'll admit it was a bit of a nuisance.

家を畳んでからも清の所へは折々行った。  
Even after we'd broken up the household, I visited Kiyo now and then.
清の甥というのは存外結構な人である。  
Kiyo's nephew turned out to be a surprisingly decent fellow.
おれが行くたびに、居りさえすれば、何くれと款待なしてくれた。  
Whenever I visited, if he happened to be in, he'd fuss over me with all sorts of hospitality.
清はおれを前へ置いて、いろいろおれの自慢を甥に聞かせた。  
Kiyo would sit me down in front of her and go on boasting about me to her nephew.
今に学校を卒業すると麹町辺へ屋敷を買って役所へ通うのだなどと吹聴した事もある。  
She'd even go around announcing that once I graduated I'd buy a mansion somewhere around Kōjimachi and commute to some government office.
独りで極めて一人で喋舌るから、こっちは困まって顔を赤くした。  
She decided all this on her own and chattered on all on her own, so I sat there red-faced with embarrassment.
それも一度や二度ではない。  
And this wasn't once or twice, either.
折々おれが小さい時寝小便をした事まで持ち出すには閉口した。  
At times she even brought up how I used to wet the bed as a small child, which I found utterly mortifying.
甥は何と思って清の自慢を聞いていたか分らぬ。  
What the nephew made of Kiyo's boasting, I couldn't say.
ただ清は昔風の女だから、自分とおれの関係を封建時代の主従のように考えていた。  
But Kiyo, being a woman of the old school, thought of her relationship with me as that of a feudal-era retainer and master.
自分の主人なら甥のためにも主人に相違ないと合点したものらしい。  
She seemed to have decided that if I was her master, then I must be her nephew's master too.
甥こそいい面の皮だ。  
Which really put the poor nephew in an awkward spot.
> 「いい面の皮だ」 idiom: 「いい面の皮」 — literally 'quite a face(-skin) [to have to make]', an idiom for being put in an awkward or embarrassing position through no fault of one's own — here, the nephew stuck listening to Kiyo's boasting.

いよいよ約束が極まって、もう立つと云う三日前に清を尋ねたら、北向きの三畳に風邪を引いて寝ていた。  
When it was finally settled and only three days remained before I left, I went to see Kiyo and found her laid up with a cold in her north-facing three-mat room.
おれの来たのを見て起き直るが早いか、坊っちゃんいつ家をお持ちなさいますと聞いた。  
The moment she saw I'd come she sat straight up and asked, young master, when will you get a house of your own.
> 「坊っちゃん」: 「坊っちゃん」 ぼっちゃん (botchan) — 'young master'; an affectionate-respectful term a servant uses for the son of the house. This is the word that gives the novel its title. Kiyo is the first and warmest to use it — later in the book other characters (teachers at his new school) call him 「坊っちゃん」 too, but more mockingly.
卒業さえすれば金が自然とポッケットの中に湧いて来ると思っている。  
She seemed to believe that money would simply well up in my pocket the instant I graduated.
そんなにえらい人をつらまえて、まだ坊っちゃんと呼ぶのはいよいよ馬鹿気ている。  
To go on calling someone so grand and important young master was, by now, downright absurd.
おれは単簡に当分うちは持たない。  
I told her simply that I wouldn't be getting a house for the time being.
田舎へ行くんだと云ったら、非常に失望した容子で、胡麻塩の鬢の乱れをしきりに撫でた。  
When I said I was going off to the countryside, she looked terribly crestfallen and kept smoothing down the loose strands of her salt-and-pepper hair.
あまり気の毒だから「行く事は行くがじき帰る。  
She looked so pitiable that I said, ‘I'm going, yes, but I'll be back soon.
来年の夏休みにはきっと帰る」と慰めてやった。  
I'll surely be back next summer vacation,’ I said to comfort her.
それでも妙な顔をしているから「何を見やげに買って来てやろう、何が欲しい」と聞いてみたら「越後の笹飴が食べたい」と云った。  
Still, she looked so strange that I asked her, ‘What souvenir shall I bring you back, what do you want,’ and she said, ‘I'd like some Echigo bamboo-leaf candy.’
越後の笹飴なんて聞いた事もない。  
I'd never even heard of Echigo bamboo-leaf candy.
第一方角が違う。  
For one thing, it was in entirely the wrong direction.
「おれの行く田舎には笹飴はなさそうだ」と云って聞かしたら「そんなら、どっちの見当です」と聞き返した。  
When I told her, ‘there doesn't seem to be any bamboo-leaf candy where I'm going,’ she asked back, ‘well then, which direction is it?’
「西の方だよ」と云うと「箱根のさきですか手前ですか」と問う。  
When I said, ‘it's off to the west,’ she asked, ‘is that beyond Hakone, or before it?’
随分持てあました。  
I really didn't know what to do with her.

出立の日には朝から来て、いろいろ世話をやいた。  
On the day I left, she came from early morning and fussed over all sorts of things.
来る途中小間物屋で買って来た歯磨と楊子と手拭をズックの革鞄に入れてくれた。  
On her way over she'd stopped at a sundries shop and bought tooth powder, a toothpick, and a hand towel, and packed them into my canvas bag.
そんな物は入らないと云ってもなかなか承知しない。  
I told her I didn't need such things, but she wouldn't hear of it.
車を並べて停車場へ着いて、プラットフォームの上へ出た時、車へ乗り込んだおれの顔をじっと見て「もうお別れになるかも知れません。  
We rode our rickshaws together to the station, and when we came out onto the platform, she stared hard at my face as I sat boarded on the train, and said, ‘this may be the last time we ever see each other.
随分ご機嫌よう」と小さな声で云った。  
Do take good care of yourself,’ she added, in a small voice.
> 「ご機嫌よう」: 「ご機嫌よう」 ごきげんよう (gokigen'yō) — a formal parting greeting, roughly 'do take care / farewell'. Kiyo's use of it, rather than something more casual, underlines how seriously she takes this goodbye.
目に涙が一杯たまっている。  
Her eyes were brimming with tears.
おれは泣かなかった。  
I didn't cry.
しかしもう少しで泣くところであった。  
But I came very close to it.
汽車がよっぽど動き出してから、もう大丈夫だろうと思って、窓から首を出して、振り向いたら、やっぱり立っていた。  
After the train had gone quite some distance, thinking it safe enough now, I leaned my head out the window and looked back, and there she still was, standing on the platform.
何だか大変小さく見えた。  
Somehow she looked terribly small.
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Source text: public domain (Natsume Sōseki, d. 1916; first published 1906), from Aozora Bunko. English translation and notes: © 2026 1732 Studios, LLC. Narration: synthesized for this edition.