# Botchan, Chapter 4

坊っちゃん · Natsume Sōseki · Botchan

Source: https://1732studios.com/books/botchan/ch04. Data: https://1732studios.com/books/botchan/ch04.json. Audio: https://audio.1732studios.com/botchan/<line id>.m4a.


学校には宿直があって、職員が代る代るこれをつとめる。  
The school has night duty, and the staff take turns doing it.
但し狸と赤シャツは例外である。  
Except, naturally, the Badger and Red Shirt are exempt.
> «である» — the formal copula: «である» is the formal/written register of «だ», the plain copula. Botchan's narration flips into it for wry, mock-official pronouncements — here, sarcastically certifying that the Badger and Red Shirt are the sole exceptions.
何でこの両人が当然の義務を免かれるのかと聞いてみたら、奏任待遇だからと云う。  
When I asked why those two are let off this basic duty, I was told it's because of their senior-appointee status.
> «奏任待遇» そうにんたいぐう (sōnin taigū) — senior-appointee status: «奏任» named a mid-tier rank of Meiji civil servant (one whose appointment was reported to, though not made by, the Emperor). «奏任待遇» = 'treated as of sōnin rank' — the flimsy bureaucratic excuse Botchan mocks for why the principal and head teacher skip night duty.
面白くもない。  
Not funny in the least.
月給はたくさんとる、時間は少ない、それで宿直を逃がれるなんて不公平があるものか。  
They rake in fat salaries, work short hours, and dodge night duty besides — is that fair or what?
勝手な規則をこしらえて、それが当り前だというような顔をしている。  
They cook up whatever rules suit them and wear a face like it's only natural.
よくまああんなにずうずうしく出来るものだ。  
I don't know how anyone gets that shameless.
これについては大分不平であるが、山嵐の説によると、いくら一人で不平を並べたって通るものじゃないそうだ。  
I've got plenty to grumble about on this score, but according to Porcupine, no amount of one-man griping ever gets you anywhere.
> «山嵐» やまあらし (Yamaarashi) — 'Porcupine': «山嵐» literally means 'mountain storm' and is a homophone of «山荒» (yamaarashi), the actual word for porcupine — Botchan's punning nickname for Hotta, after his bristly hair and temperament.
一人だって二人だって正しい事なら通りそうなものだ。  
Seems to me if a thing's right, it ought to carry whether one person says it or two.
山嵐は might is right という英語を引いて説諭を加えたが、何だか要領を得ないから、聞き返してみたら強者の権利と云う意味だそうだ。  
Porcupine quoted some English at me — "might is right" — to lecture me, and since I couldn't quite follow it, I asked him what it meant, and it turns out it's "the right of the strong."
> «だそうだ» — reported hearsay: «そうだ» attached to a plain-form clause reports what someone else said, not the speaker's own knowledge: 'I hear that...' Botchan uses it to distance himself from Porcupine's explanation, which he still finds unconvincing.
強者の権利ぐらいなら昔から知っている。  
I've known about the right of the strong since way back.
今さら山嵐から講釈をきかなくってもいい。  
No need for Porcupine to lecture me on it now.
強者の権利と宿直とは別問題だ。  
The right of the strong and night duty are two different matters.
狸や赤シャツが強者だなんて、誰が承知するものか。  
Who on earth would grant that the Badger or Red Shirt are the strong?
議論は議論としてこの宿直がいよいよおれの番に廻って来た。  
Argument aside, this round of night duty finally rolled around to me.
一体疳性だから夜具蒲団などは自分のものへ楽に寝ないと寝たような心持ちがしない。  
Being high-strung by nature, I can't feel properly asleep unless I'm lying easy in my own bedding.
> «疳性» かんしょう (kanshō) — high-strung, nervous temperament: An old word for a jumpy, easily-irritated disposition — Botchan uses it to excuse his childish insistence on sleeping only in his own bedding, foreshadowing the grasshopper chaos to come.
小供の時から、友達のうちへ泊った事はほとんどないくらいだ。  
Even as a child I hardly ever stayed over at a friend's house.
友達のうちでさえ厭なら学校の宿直はなおさら厭だ。  
If I hate staying even at a friend's house, I hate night duty at school all the more.
厭だけれども、これが四十円のうちへ籠っているなら仕方がない。  
Hate it as I do, though, if this is part of what earns the forty yen, there's no help for it.
我慢して勤めてやろう。  
I'll grit my teeth and do the job.

教師も生徒も帰ってしまったあとで、一人ぽかんとしているのは随分間が抜けたものだ。  
Sitting there alone after both teachers and pupils have gone home for the day, gawking at nothing, is a pretty vacant way to spend an evening.
宿直部屋は教場の裏手にある寄宿舎の西はずれの一室だ。  
The night-duty room is a single room at the western end of the dormitory, behind the classrooms.
ちょっとはいってみたが、西日をまともに受けて、苦しくって居たたまれない。  
I stepped in for a look, but the west sun was blazing straight into it — unbearable.
田舎だけあって秋がきても、気長に暑いもんだ。  
Just as you'd expect in the country, the heat takes its time leaving even after autumn comes.
生徒の賄を取りよせて晩飯を済ましたが、まずいには恐れ入った。  
I had the students' kitchen send up supper, and I was floored by how bad it was.
よくあんなものを食って、あれだけに暴れられたもんだ。  
To think they eat that stuff and still have the energy to run riot the way they do.
それで晩飯を急いで四時半に片付けてしまうんだから豪傑に違いない。  
And they bolt supper down and clear it away by half past four — they must be made of sterner stuff than me.
飯は食ったが、まだ日が暮れないから寝る訳に行かない。  
I'd eaten, but it wasn't dark yet, so I couldn't very well go to bed.
ちょっと温泉に行きたくなった。  
I got a hankering to go to the hot spring.
宿直をして、外へ出るのはいい事だか、悪るい事だかしらないが、こうつくねんとして重禁錮同様な憂目に逢うのは我慢の出来るもんじゃない。  
Whether it's proper or not for someone on night duty to step out, I don't know, but sitting here cooped up like I'm serving a sentence is more than I can stand.
始めて学校へ来た時当直の人はと聞いたら、ちょっと用達に出たと小使が答えたのを妙だと思ったが、自分に番が廻ってみると思い当る。  
The first day I came to the school, when I asked where the man on duty was, the janitor answered he'd stepped out on some errand, and I thought that was odd — but now that my own turn has come round, I understand.
> «用達» ようたし (yōtashi) — an errand: A dated word for 'business to attend to' — here the janitor's vague cover story for the previous night-duty teacher's absence, which Botchan now understands means simply: slipping out.
出る方が正しいのだ。  
Stepping out is the right thing to do.
おれは小使にちょっと出てくると云ったら、何かご用ですかと聞くから、用じゃない、温泉へはいるんだと答えて、さっさと出掛けた。  
I told the janitor I was just popping out for a bit, and he asked what business I had, so I said it wasn't business, I was going to the bath, and off I marched.
赤手拭は宿へ忘れて来たのが残念だが今日は先方で借りるとしよう。  
Too bad I left my red hand-towel back at my lodgings, but never mind — I'll borrow one there today.
> «赤手拭» あかてぬぐい (aka tenugui) — red bath-towel: A thin cotton cloth used at the bathhouse; Botchan's red one is a running motif of his brash city-boy vanity in this seaside town, and he's put out at having left it behind.

それからかなりゆるりと、出たりはいったりして、ようやく日暮方になったから、汽車へ乗って古町の停車場まで来て下りた。  
After a good leisurely stretch of going in and out of the water, evening finally came on, so I took the train to Old Town station and got off there.
学校まではこれから四丁だ。  
From there it is four chō to the school.
訳はないとあるき出すと、向うから狸が来た。  
Nothing to it, I thought, and set off on foot, when the Badger came toward me.
狸はこれからこの汽車で温泉へ行こうと云う計画なんだろう。  
He was probably headed for the same train, off to the hot spring.
すたすた急ぎ足にやってきたが、擦れ違った時おれの顔を見たから、ちょっと挨拶をした。  
He came bustling along at a clip, and when we passed each other and he caught sight of my face, I gave him a little bow.
すると狸はあなたは今日は宿直ではなかったですかねえと真面目くさって聞いた。  
Whereupon the Badger, looking terribly earnest, asked whether I wasn't on night duty today.
なかったですかねえもないもんだ。  
"Wasn't I" — as if he didn't know.
二時間前おれに向って今夜は始めての宿直ですね。  
Two hours earlier he'd said to me, "Tonight's your first night duty, isn't it?
ご苦労さま。  
Good luck with it" —
と礼を云ったじゃないか。  
— thanking me for it, no less.
校長なんかになるといやに曲りくねった言葉を使うもんだ。  
Get to be a principal and you start using the most twisted language imaginable.
> «曲りくねった言葉» — 'twisted words': Literally 'winding, crooked language' — Botchan's contempt for the principal's evasive, over-polite way of talking, which says one thing while meaning another.
おれは腹が立ったから、ええ宿直です。  
It made me angry, so I said, "Yes, I'm on night duty.
宿直ですから、これから帰って泊る事はたしかに泊りますと云い捨てて済ましてあるき出した。  
Since I'm on duty, I will certainly be back to sleep there tonight," I flung at him, and stalked off.
竪町の四つ角までくると今度は山嵐に出っ喰わした。  
By the time I reached the crossroads at Tatemachi, this time I ran smack into Porcupine.
どうも狭い所だ。  
What a cramped little town this is.
出てあるきさえすれば必ず誰かに逢う。  
Step outside at all and you're bound to run into someone.
「おい君は宿直じゃないか」と聞くから「うん、宿直だ」と答えたら、「宿直が無暗に出てあるくなんて、不都合じゃないか」と云った。  
"Hey, aren't you on night duty?" he asked, and I said, "Yeah, I'm on duty," and he said, "It's pretty irregular for someone on duty to go wandering around like this."
「ちっとも不都合なもんか、出てあるかない方が不都合だ」と威張ってみせた。  
"Not irregular in the least — it'd be more irregular not to go out," I answered, putting on a brave front.
「君のずぼらにも困るな、校長か教頭に出逢うと面倒だぜ」と山嵐に似合わない事を云うから「校長にはたった今逢った。暑い時には散歩でもしないと宿直も骨でしょうと校長が、おれの散歩をほめたよ」と云って、面倒臭いから、さっさと学校へ帰って来た。  
"You and your slapdash ways — it'll be trouble if you run into the principal or the vice-principal," he said, sounding quite unlike himself, so I told him, "I already ran into the principal just now. The principal praised my walk. He said, 'In this heat, night duty must be hard unless you get out for a stroll.'" — and, too bothered to say more, I hurried straight back to school.
> «〜ぜ» — Botchan's rough masculine particle: «ぜ» tacked onto a plain-form sentence marks blunt, familiar, masculine speech — here Porcupine warning Botchan, man to man, that he'll be in trouble if the principal catches him.

それから日はすぐくれる。  
After that, darkness falls fast.
くれてから二時間ばかりは小使を宿直部屋へ呼んで話をしたが、それも飽きたから、寝られないまでも床へはいろうと思って、寝巻に着換えて、蚊帳を捲くって、赤い毛布を跳ねのけて、とんと尻持を突いて、仰向けになった。  
Once it was dark I called the janitor to the night-duty room and chatted with him for a couple of hours, but I got tired of that too, and though I couldn't sleep, I thought I'd get into bed anyway, so I changed into my nightclothes, rolled up the mosquito net, kicked off the red blanket, came down on my backside with a thump and lay back face up.
> Chained «て»-forms: A run of chained verb forms strings five actions into one breathless motion: changing, rolling up the net, kicking off the blanket, dropping onto his backside, and lying face up. — changing, rolling up the net, kicking off the blanket, flopping down — mirroring how fast and carelessly Botchan gets into bed.
おれが寝るときにとんと尻持をつくのは小供の時からの癖だ。  
Thumping down on my backside when I go to bed has been a habit of mine since I was a boy.
わるい癖だと云って小川町の下宿に居た時分、二階下に居た法律学校の書生が苦情を持ち込んだ事がある。  
Once, when I was boarding in Ogawamachi, a law-school student living one floor below came up to complain that it was a bad habit.
法律の書生なんてものは弱い癖に、やに口が達者なもので、愚な事を長たらしく述べ立てるから、寝る時にどんどん音がするのはおれの尻がわるいのじゃない。  
Law students, for all that they're weaklings, have such a slick way with words, and this one went on and on about some nonsense, so I told him — the racket when I go to bed at night isn't my backside's fault.
下宿の建築が粗末なんだ。  
It's the lodging house's shoddy construction that's to blame.
掛ケ合うなら下宿へ掛ケ合えと凹ましてやった。  
If you've got a complaint, take it up with the landlord, not me — and I sent him packing.
この宿直部屋は二階じゃないから、いくら、どしんと倒れても構わない。  
This night-duty room isn't upstairs, so it doesn't matter how hard I come down with a thud.
なるべく勢よく倒れないと寝たような心持ちがしない。  
If I don't flop down with real force it doesn't feel like I've properly gone to sleep.
ああ愉快だと足をうんと延ばすと、何だか両足へ飛び付いた。  
"Ah, this is the life," I thought, stretching my legs out good and wide, when something jumped onto both my feet.
ざらざらして蚤のようでもないからこいつあと驚ろいて、足を二三度毛布の中で振ってみた。  
It felt gritty, not at all like fleas, so I gave a start — what the devil — and shook my feet a couple of times inside the blanket.
するとざらざらと当ったものが、急に殖え出して脛が五六カ所、股が二三カ所、尻の下でぐちゃりと踏み潰したのが一つ、臍の所まで飛び上がったのが一つ――いよいよ驚ろいた。  
Then whatever the gritty things were suddenly multiplied — five or six on my shins, two or three on my thighs, one squashed with a squish under my backside, one that leaped clean up to my navel — by now I was thoroughly alarmed.
早速起き上って、毛布をぱっと後ろへ抛ると、蒲団の中から、バッタが五六十飛び出した。  
I sprang up at once, flung the blanket back behind me, and out from the bedding leaped fifty or sixty grasshoppers.
正体の知れない時は多少気味が悪るかったが、バッタと相場が極まってみたら急に腹が立った。  
As long as I didn't know what the things were, it was more than a little unnerving, but once I'd settled on "grasshoppers," I suddenly got furious.
バッタの癖に人を驚ろかしやがって、どうするか見ろと、いきなり括り枕を取って、二三度擲きつけたが、相手が小さ過ぎるから勢よく抛げつける割に利目がない。  
The nerve of these grasshoppers, giving a man a fright — I'll show them, I thought, and grabbed my hard pillow and flung it at them a couple of times, but they were too small for that, and however hard I threw, it did no good.
仕方がないから、また布団の上へ坐って、煤掃の時に蓙を丸めて畳を叩くように、そこら近辺を無暗にたたいた。  
No help for it, so I sat back down on the bedding and, the way you roll up a straw mat and beat the tatami floor with it during year-end housecleaning, I whacked away wildly all around me.
バッタが驚ろいた上に、枕の勢で飛び上がるものだから、おれの肩だの、頭だの鼻の先だのへくっ付いたり、ぶつかったりする。  
The grasshoppers, startled and then sent flying by the force of the pillow, kept landing on my shoulders, my head, the tip of my nose, and bumping into me.
顔へ付いた奴は枕で叩く訳に行かないから、手で攫んで、一生懸命に擲きつける。  
The ones that landed on my face I couldn't very well swat with the pillow, so I grabbed them with my hands and flung them down with all my might.
忌々しい事に、いくら力を出しても、ぶつかる先が蚊帳だから、ふわりと動くだけで少しも手答がない。  
Infuriating thing was, no matter how much force I put into it, whatever I hit was the mosquito net, so it just gave a soft sway and I felt no satisfaction at all.
バッタは擲きつけられたまま蚊帳へつらまっている。  
The grasshoppers, flung as they were, just clung there on the mosquito net.
死にもどうもしない。  
They didn't so much as die.
ようやくの事に三十分ばかりでバッタは退治た。  
It took a good half hour, but at last I finished the grasshoppers off.
箒を持って来てバッタの死骸を掃き出した。  
I fetched a broom and swept out their corpses.
小使が来て何ですかと云うから、何ですかもあるもんか、バッタを床の中に飼っとく奴がどこの国にある。  
The janitor came and said, "What is it?" so I said, "What is it, my foot — what country lets grasshoppers get kept in a man's bedding?"
> «どこの国にある» — rhetorical 'what country...': Literally 'in what country does this exist', a stock rhetorical idiom for 'that's unheard of' — Botchan's outrage at the janitor for letting grasshoppers into his bedding.
間抜め。  
Blockhead!
と叱ったら、私は存じませんと弁解をした。  
When I scolded him like that, he made excuses, saying, "I have no idea."
> «〜たら» after a quote — 'when I said/did X': «〜たら» here works less as a hypothetical 'if' and more as a simple sequential 'when' — 'when I scolded him, he said...' — common in fast-moving spoken narration.
存じませんで済むかと箒を椽側へ抛り出したら、小使は恐る恐る箒を担いで帰って行った。  
"'No idea' won't cut it," I said, and flung the broom out onto the veranda, whereupon the janitor gingerly picked it up on his shoulder and went off.

おれは早速寄宿生を三人ばかり総代に呼び出した。  
I lost no time in summoning three of the boarding students as representatives.
すると六人出て来た。  
Six of them turned up instead.
六人だろうが十人だろうが構うものか。  
Six or ten, what did it matter to me.
寝巻のまま腕まくりをして談判を始めた。  
Still in my nightclothes, I rolled up my sleeves and opened negotiations.

「なんでバッタなんか、おれの床の中へ入れた」  
"Why did you put grasshoppers in my bed?"

「バッタた何ぞな」と真先の一人がいった。  
"A grasshopper, what's that, nah," said the one standing in front.
> «何ぞな» なんぞな — Iyo (Shikoku) dialect ending: «〜ぞな» is a sentence-final flavor particle of the local Iyo dialect (Botchan is set in Matsuyama), softer and more sing-song than standard Tokyo speech — one of many local turns of phrase that infuriate the transplanted narrator.
やに落ち付いていやがる。  
Cool as you please, the impudent brute.
この学校じゃ校長ばかりじゃない、生徒まで曲りくねった言葉を使うんだろう。  
Seems it's not just the principal at this school — even the students use this twisted way of talking.

「バッタを知らないのか、知らなけりゃ見せてやろう」と云ったが、生憎掃き出してしまって一匹も居ない。  
"You don't know what a grasshopper is? I'll show you, then," I said, but wouldn't you know it, I'd already swept them all out and there wasn't a single one left.
また小使を呼んで、「さっきのバッタを持ってこい」と云ったら、「もう掃溜へ棄ててしまいましたが、拾って参りましょうか」と聞いた。  
So I called the janitor again and told him, "Bring back the grasshoppers from before," and he asked, "I've already thrown them onto the rubbish heap — shall I go pick some up?"
「うんすぐ拾って来い」と云うと小使は急いで馳け出したが、やがて半紙の上へ十匹ばかり載せて来て「どうもお気の毒ですが、生憎夜でこれだけしか見当りません。あしたになりましたらもっと拾って参ります」と云う。  
"Yes, go get some right now," I said, and the janitor went dashing off, and soon came back with about ten of them laid out on a sheet of paper, saying, "I'm sorry, but this is all I could find in the dark — I'll pick up more tomorrow."
小使まで馬鹿だ。  
Even the janitor's a fool.
おれはバッタの一つを生徒に見せて「バッタたこれだ、大きなずう体をして、バッタを知らないた、何の事だ」と云うと、一番左の方に居た顔の丸い奴が「そりゃ、イナゴぞな、もし」と生意気におれを遣り込めた。  
I showed the boy one of the grasshoppers and said, "Here's a grasshopper — big lump of a body like yours and you don't know what a grasshopper is, what's the meaning of that?" and the round-faced one standing farthest to the left cheekily talked back at me, "That there's a locust, that."
> «イナゴ» vs «バッタ» — locust vs. grasshopper: «イナゴ» (rice-field locust) and «バッタ» (grasshopper) are related but distinct insects; the boy's insistence on the 'correct' local term, against Botchan's Tokyo usage, is itself part of the needling.
「篦棒め、イナゴもバッタも同じもんだ。第一先生を捕まえてなもした何だ。菜飯は田楽の時より外に食うもんじゃない」とあべこべに遣り込めてやったら「なもしと菜飯とは違うぞな、もし」と云った。  
"The devil it is — a locust and a grasshopper are the same thing. And what's the idea of a student using 'namoshi' on his teacher, of all things? You don't eat nameshi except alongside dengaku, anyhow," I turned it back on him and put him in his place, and he said, "'Namoshi' and 'nameshi' aren't the same thing, I tell you."
> «なもし» — Iyo dialect sentence-tag: A distinctive Matsuyama-area tag word (roughly 'you know', 'I tell you'), used constantly by the local students; Botchan finds it as grating as their insistence on 'イナゴ' over 'バッタ'.
いつまで行ってもなもしを使う奴だ。  
No matter what, this fellow can't stop tacking that "that" onto everything.

「イナゴでもバッタでも、何でおれの床の中へ入れたんだ。おれがいつ、バッタを入れてくれと頼んだ」  
"Locust or grasshopper, whichever it is, why'd you put it in my bed? When did I ever ask anyone to put a grasshopper in for me?"

「誰も入れやせんがな」  
"Nobody put none in, is what."
> «〜やせん» — dialect contraction of «〜はしない»: «入れやせん» contracts «入れはしない» ('[we] certainly didn't put it in'), with the local tag «〜がな» added — a rural, emphatic way of denying something that sounds evasive to Botchan's ear.

「入れないものが、どうして床の中に居るんだ」  
"If nobody put any in, then how'd it get in my bed?"

「イナゴは温い所が好きじゃけれ、大方一人でおはいりたのじゃあろ」  
"Locusts like warm places, most like it crawled in on its own, is what."
> «じゃけれ» — dialect 'because': A regional equivalent of «だから» ('because, so'), marking the boy's excuse — that the locust just liked the warmth — as maddeningly reasonable-sounding nonsense.

「馬鹿あ云え。バッタが一人でおはいりになるなんて――バッタにおはいりになられてたまるもんか。――さあなぜこんないたずらをしたか、云え」  
"Don't talk rot. As if a grasshopper's going to crawl in all on its own — I won't stand for a grasshopper 'crawling in on its own.' — Now then, why'd you play this trick? Speak up."
> Sarcastic sonkeigo (honorific) for a grasshopper: «お〜になる» is the standard respectful (尊敬語) construction, normally reserved for a social superior's actions. Applying it to a grasshopper 'deigning to enter' Botchan's bed is a deliberate, funny mismatch of register — honorific grammar aimed at an insect.

「云えてて、入れんものを説明しようがないがな」  
"Speak up, you say, but there's no explaining a thing we didn't do, is what."

けちな奴等だ。  
Stingy little wretches.
自分で自分のした事が云えないくらいなら、てんでしないがいい。  
If they can't even own up to what they've done themselves, they'd have been better off never doing it at all.
証拠さえ挙がらなければ、しらを切るつもりで図太く構えていやがる。  
So long as no proof turns up, they mean to brazen it out and play innocent.
おれだって中学に居た時分は少しはいたずらもしたもんだ。  
Even I got up to a little mischief back in middle school myself.
しかしだれがしたと聞かれた時に、尻込みをするような卑怯な事はただの一度もなかった。  
But when someone asked who'd done it, I never once shrank back like a coward.
したものはしたので、しないものはしないに極ってる。  
What I did, I did; what I didn't, I didn't — plain as that.
おれなんぞは、いくら、いたずらをしたって潔白なものだ。  
However much mischief I got up to, I did it with a clean conscience.
嘘を吐いて罰を逃げるくらいなら、始めからいたずらなんかやるものか。  
If a fellow's going to lie his way out of punishment, he shouldn't be getting up to mischief in the first place.
いたずらと罰はつきもんだ。  
Mischief and punishment go hand in hand.
> «つきもの» — an inseparable companion: «つきもの» names something that always comes bundled with something else; here, punishment is 'inseparable' from mischief — Botchan's blunt personal code of honor.
罰があるからいたずらも心持ちよく出来る。  
It's precisely because there's punishment that mischief can be enjoyed with an easy heart.
いたずらだけで罰はご免蒙るなんて下劣な根性がどこの国に流行ると思ってるんだ。  
What kind of low, rotten spirit thinks he can get the mischief without the punishment — where in the world does that pass for normal?
金は借りるが、返す事はご免だと云う連中はみんな、こんな奴等が卒業してやる仕事に相違ない。  
The sort who borrow money and mean never to pay it back are bound to be the very fellows these boys grow up into once they graduate.
全体中学校へ何しにはいってるんだ。  
What in blazes do they even come to middle school for?
学校へはいって、嘘を吐いて、胡魔化して、陰でこせこせ生意気な悪いたずらをして、そうして大きな面で卒業すれば教育を受けたもんだと癇違いをしていやがる。  
They enroll, tell lies, cheat their way through, sneak around doing petty, insolent, rotten little mischief behind everyone's back, and then, straight-faced, once they've graduated, go around fancying they've had an education.
話せない雑兵だ。  
Miserable little foot soldiers, not worth talking to.

おれはこんな腐った了見の奴等と談判するのは胸糞が悪るいから、「そんなに云われなきゃ、聞かなくっていい。中学校へはいって、上品も下品も区別が出来ないのは気の毒なものだ」と云って六人を逐っ放してやった。  
Negotiating with such rotten-minded wretches turned my stomach, so I said, "If you can't bring yourselves to say it, I won't ask any more. It's a sorry state of affairs when you can't tell decent from indecent even after coming to middle school," and I sent the six of them packing.
> «〜なきゃ» — contraction of «〜なければ»: Here «そんなに云われなきゃ» is «云われなければ», the potential: 'if you can't bring yourselves to say it'. Botchan gives up asking. Common in Botchan's brusque, unpolished speech.
おれは言葉や様子こそあまり上品じゃないが、心はこいつらよりも遥かに上品なつもりだ。  
My own words and manner may not be especially refined, but I flatter myself my heart is a good deal more refined than theirs.
六人は悠々と引き揚げた。  
The six of them withdrew at their leisure.
上部だけは教師のおれよりよっぽどえらく見える。  
On the surface, at least, they look a good deal more composed than I do, teacher though I am.
実は落ち付いているだけなお悪るい。  
The truth is, being so composed only makes it worse.
おれには到底これほどの度胸はない。  
I could never manage that kind of nerve myself.

それからまた床へはいって横になったら、さっきの騒動で蚊帳の中はぶんぶん唸っている。  
After that I got back into bed and lay down, but the mosquito net was still buzzing away from all the earlier commotion.
> «蚊帳» かや (kaya) — mosquito net: A net of fine cotton or hemp hung over the sleeping area, standard in pre-war Japanese homes; it becomes both the grasshoppers' hiding place and — struck loose in fury — the source of Botchan's bruised hand.
手燭をつけて一匹ずつ焼くなんて面倒な事は出来ないから、釣手をはずして、長く畳んでおいて部屋の中で横竪十文字に振ったら、環が飛んで手の甲をいやというほど撲った。  
Lighting a hand-candle and burning them off one by one was too much bother, so I unhooked the net's cord, folded it up long, and swung it around the room crosswise and lengthwise, and the metal ring flew off and struck the back of my hand something awful.
三度目に床へはいった時は少々落ち付いたがなかなか寝られない。  
The third time I got into bed I'd calmed down a little, but I still couldn't get to sleep.
時計を見ると十時半だ。  
I looked at the clock — half past ten.
考えてみると厄介な所へ来たもんだ。  
Thinking it over, I'd landed myself in a troublesome place.
一体中学の先生なんて、どこへ行っても、こんなものを相手にするなら気の毒なものだ。  
Middle-school teachers everywhere, I'd imagine, have my sympathy if this is the kind of thing they have to deal with.
よく先生が品切れにならない。  
It's a wonder they never run out of teachers.
よっぽど辛防強い朴念仁がなるんだろう。  
I suppose only extraordinarily patient blockheads become teachers.
おれには到底やり切れない。  
I could never stick it out myself.
それを思うと清なんてのは見上げたものだ。  
Thinking of that, Kiyo really is something to look up to.
教育もない身分もない婆さんだが、人間としてはすこぶる尊とい。  
She's an old woman with neither education nor rank, but as a human being she's thoroughly noble.
今まではあんなに世話になって別段難有いとも思わなかったが、こうして、一人で遠国へ来てみると、始めてあの親切がわかる。  
Up till now, for all she'd done for me, I never thought much of being grateful, but now that I've come all alone to this far-off province, I understand her kindness for the first time.
越後の笹飴が食いたければ、わざわざ越後まで買いに行って食わしてやっても、食わせるだけの価値は充分ある。  
If she took a fancy for Echigo taffy, it'd be worth going all the way to Echigo to buy it and feed it to her, just for the pleasure of feeding her.
清はおれの事を欲がなくって、真直な気性だと云って、ほめるが、ほめられるおれよりも、ほめる本人の方が立派な人間だ。  
Kiyo praises me for being free of greed and having a straightforward nature, but the one doing the praising is a finer person than the one being praised.
何だか清に逢いたくなった。  
Somehow I found myself wanting to see Kiyo.

清の事を考えながら、のつそつしていると、突然おれの頭の上で、数で云ったら三四十人もあろうか、二階が落っこちるほどどん、どん、どんと拍子を取って床板を踏みならす音がした。  
While I was thinking of Kiyo, restless and turning this way and that, suddenly, over my head — judging by the sound, thirty or forty of them at least — came a thunderous don, don, don, stamping the floorboards in unison hard enough to bring the ceiling down.
すると足音に比例した大きな鬨の声が起った。  
Then a great war-whoop went up, matching the stamping in scale.
おれは何事が持ち上がったのかと驚ろいて飛び起きた。  
Wondering what on earth had broken out, I sprang up in alarm.
飛び起きる途端に、ははあさっきの意趣返しに生徒があばれるのだなと気がついた。  
The instant I sprang up, it dawned on me — ah, this must be the students getting back at me for earlier.
手前のわるい事は悪るかったと言ってしまわないうちは罪は消えないもんだ。  
It's not enough to know a wrong was wrong — until you've said so out loud, the fault doesn't go away.
> «〜てしまう» + «〜ないうちは» — 'until (not) X': «てしまう» marks the completion of an act (here, 'finish saying'); «〜ないうちは» means 'as long as X hasn't happened'. Together: 'until it's been said outright, the fault doesn't disappear' — Botchan's rough personal ethics.
わるい事は、手前達に覚があるだろう。  
Whatever's wrong, those fellows themselves must know it perfectly well.
本来なら寝てから後悔してあしたの朝でもあやまりに来るのが本筋だ。  
The proper thing would be to go to bed, feel sorry about it, and come apologize the next morning.
たとい、あやまらないまでも恐れ入って、静粛に寝ているべきだ。  
Even if they weren't going to apologize, the least they could do is lie there quietly, suitably chastened.
それを何だこの騒ぎは。  
And instead, what is this racket?
寄宿舎を建てて豚でも飼っておきあしまいし。  
You'd think they'd built a dormitory and were keeping pigs in it.
気狂いじみた真似も大抵にするがいい。  
There's a limit to how far you can carry on like lunatics.
どうするか見ろと、寝巻のまま宿直部屋を飛び出して、楷子段を三股半に二階まで躍り上がった。  
Just you wait, I thought. Still in my nightclothes, I flew out of the night-duty room and bounded up to the second floor in three and a half strides.
すると不思議な事に、今まで頭の上で、たしかにどたばた暴れていたのが、急に静まり返って、人声どころか足音もしなくなった。  
Then, strange to say, the ruckus that had plainly been going on right overhead a moment before suddenly fell dead silent — not a voice, not even a footstep.
これは妙だ。  
Odd, this.
ランプはすでに消してあるから、暗くてどこに何が居るか判然と分らないが、人気のあるとないとは様子でも知れる。  
The lamp was already out, so it was too dark to make out clearly where anything or anyone was, but you can tell from the feel of the place whether there's a soul about or not.
長く東から西へ貫いた廊下には鼠一匹も隠れていない。  
The corridor, running the long way from east to west, hadn't so much as a mouse hiding in it.
廊下のはずれから月がさして、遥か向うが際どく明るい。  
Moonlight slanted in from the corridor's far end, making the distance oddly bright.
どうも変だ、おれは小供の時から、よく夢を見る癖があって、夢中に跳ね起きて、わからぬ寝言を云って、人に笑われた事がよくある。  
Very strange indeed — I've had, since I was a child, a habit of dreaming vividly, of springing up in the middle of a dream and muttering nonsense in my sleep, and being laughed at for it more than once.
十六七の時ダイヤモンドを拾った夢を見た晩なぞは、むくりと立ち上がって、そばに居た兄に、今のダイヤモンドはどうしたと、非常な勢で尋ねたくらいだ。  
The night I dreamed, at sixteen or seventeen, that I'd picked up a diamond, I sprang to my feet and asked my brother, who was beside me, with tremendous urgency, where the diamond had got to.
その時は三日ばかりうち中の笑い草になって大いに弱った。  
That time I was the family joke for a good three days and suffered plenty for it.
ことによると今のも夢かも知れない。  
It's possible this too was a dream.
しかしたしかにあばれたに違いないがと、廊下の真中で考え込んでいると、月のさしている向うのはずれで、一二三わあと、三四十人の声がかたまって響いたかと思う間もなく、前のように拍子を取って、一同が床板を踏み鳴らした。  
But I was sure I'd truly heard them stamping about, and while I stood puzzling it over in the middle of the corridor, from the far end where the moon shone in, a shout went up — "one, two, three, waaah" — thirty or forty voices bunched together, and no sooner had it faded than, just as before, they fell into rhythm again and everyone stamped the floorboards.
それ見ろ夢じゃないやっぱり事実だ。  
See there — it wasn't a dream after all, it's really happening.
静かにしろ、夜なかだぞ、とこっちも負けんくらいな声を出して、廊下を向うへ馳けだした。  
"Quiet down, it's the middle of the night!" I shouted, not to be outdone, and went charging down the corridor toward them.
おれの通る路は暗い、ただはずれに見える月あかりが目標だ。  
The path I ran along was dark, with only the moonlight showing at the far end to aim for.
おれが馳け出して二間も来たかと思うと、廊下の真中で、堅い大きなものに向脛をぶつけて、あ痛いが頭へひびく間に、身体はすとんと前へ抛り出された。  
I'd run about two ken when, in the middle of the corridor, I banged my shin against something hard and solid — and in the instant the "ouch" rang through my skull, my body went pitching forward flat.
こん畜生と起き上がってみたが、馳けられない。  
"Damn it," I said, scrambling up, but I couldn't run.
気はせくが、足だけは云う事を利かない。  
My mind was in a hurry, but my legs simply wouldn't obey.
じれったいから、一本足で飛んで来たら、もう足音も人声も静まり返って、森としている。  
Impatient, I went hopping along on one foot, and by the time I got there even the footsteps and voices had gone dead quiet — silent as the grave.
いくら人間が卑怯だって、こんなに卑怯に出来るものじゃない。  
However cowardly people can be, they can't ordinarily manage to be this cowardly.
まるで豚だ。  
Might as well be pigs.
こうなれば隠れている奴を引きずり出して、あやまらせてやるまではひかないぞと、心を極めて寝室の一つを開けて中を検査しようと思ったが開かない。  
Since it had come to this, I made up my mind to drag out whoever was hiding and make them apologize, and I tried to open one of the dormitory rooms to search it, but it wouldn't open.
錠をかけてあるのか、机か何か積んで立て懸けてあるのか、押しても、押しても決して開かない。  
Whether it was locked, or had a desk or something propped against it, push as I might, it absolutely would not open.
今度は向う合せの北側の室を試みた。  
Next I tried the room facing it on the north side.
開かない事はやっぱり同然である。  
Same story — it wouldn't open either.
おれが戸を開けて中に居る奴を引っ捕らまえてやろうと、焦慮てると、また東のはずれで鬨の声と足拍子が始まった。  
Just as I was growing impatient, meaning to open the door and grab whoever was inside, another war-whoop and stamping of feet started up again at the east end.
この野郎申し合せて、東西相応じておれを馬鹿にする気だな、とは思ったがさてどうしていいか分らない。  
These rascals must have arranged it between them, east and west answering each other to make a fool of me, I thought, but for the life of me I couldn't figure out what to do about it.
正直に白状してしまうが、おれは勇気のある割合に智慧が足りない。  
To be perfectly honest, my courage outstrips my cleverness by quite a margin.
こんな時にはどうしていいかさっぱりわからない。  
At a time like this I hadn't the faintest idea what to do.
わからないけれども、決して負けるつもりはない。  
I didn't know what to do, but I had absolutely no intention of losing.
このままに済ましてはおれの顔にかかわる。  
To let this pass unanswered would be a stain on my honor.
江戸っ子は意気地がないと云われるのは残念だ。  
It'd be a shame to have it said that an Edokko has no backbone.
宿直をして鼻垂れ小僧にからかわれて、手のつけようがなくって、仕方がないから泣き寝入りにしたと思われちゃ一生の名折れだ。  
If word got round that I'd been made a fool of by a pack of snot-nosed brats on night duty, found myself helpless, and swallowed it because there was nothing I could do, I'd be disgraced for life.
> Passive «からかわれる» (from «からかう»): «れる/られる» turns «からかう» ('to tease, mock') into the passive 'to be teased/mocked' — the shame Botchan most fears: being made a fool of by his own students.
これでも元は旗本だ。  
Even so, I come from hatamoto stock.
旗本の元は清和源氏で、多田の満仲の後裔だ。  
Our line descends from the Seiwa Genji, from the line of Tada no Manjū himself.
> Seiwa Genji and Tada no Manjū: The Seiwa Genji were a great samurai lineage descended from Emperor Seiwa; Minamoto no Mitsunaka (called Tada no Manjū after his estate at Tada) was an early ancestor. Botchan's boast of noble blood is a real historical claim, however self-servingly deployed here.
こんな土百姓とは生まれからして違うんだ。  
I was born different from these dirt farmers.
ただ智慧のないところが惜しいだけだ。  
The only pity is I haven't the cleverness to match.
どうしていいか分らないのが困るだけだ。  
The only trouble is not knowing what to do.
困ったって負けるものか。  
Being in trouble doesn't mean I'll lose.
正直だから、どうしていいか分らないんだ。  
It's precisely because I'm honest that I don't know what to do.
世の中に正直が勝たないで、外に勝つものがあるか、考えてみろ。  
Just think about it — is there anything in this world that beats honesty in the end?
今夜中に勝てなければ、あした勝つ。  
If I don't win tonight, I'll win tomorrow.
あした勝てなければ、あさって勝つ。  
If I don't win tomorrow, I'll win the day after.
あさって勝てなければ、下宿から弁当を取り寄せて勝つまでここに居る。  
If I don't win the day after, I'll have my meals sent up from my lodgings and stay right here until I do.
おれはこう決心をしたから、廊下の真中へあぐらをかいて夜のあけるのを待っていた。  
Having made up my mind to that, I sat cross-legged in the middle of the corridor and waited for morning to come.
蚊がぶんぶん来たけれども何ともなかった。  
The mosquitoes came buzzing at me, but it didn't bother me in the least.
さっき、ぶつけた向脛を撫でてみると、何だかぬらぬらする。  
When I felt the shin I'd banged earlier, it was strangely sticky.
血が出るんだろう。  
Must be bleeding.
血なんか出たければ勝手に出るがいい。  
If it wants to bleed, let it bleed, for all I care.
そのうち最前からの疲れが出て、ついうとうと寝てしまった。  
Before long, the fatigue from everything before caught up with me, and I dozed off without meaning to.
> «〜てしまう» — an unintended, regrettable completion: «てしまう» often marks something that happened against one's will or better judgment: 'I ended up falling asleep' (when Botchan meant to stay awake and keep watch in the corridor).
何だか騒がしいので、眼が覚めた時はえっ糞しまったと飛び上がった。  
Some commotion woke me, and finding myself awake I thought, "damn it, I've slept," and leapt up.
おれの坐ってた右側にある戸が半分あいて、生徒が二人、おれの前に立っている。  
The door on my right, where I'd been sitting, was half open, and two students stood in front of me.
おれは正気に返って、はっと思う途端に、おれの鼻の先にある生徒の足を引っ攫んで、力任せにぐいと引いたら、そいつは、どたりと仰向に倒れた。  
Coming to my senses with a start, I grabbed the nearer boy's leg right in front of my nose and yanked with all my strength, and down he went, flat on his back.
ざまを見ろ。  
Serves him right.
残る一人がちょっと狼狽したところを、飛びかかって、肩を抑えて二三度こづき廻したら、あっけに取られて、眼をぱちぱちさせた。  
The other one, caught off guard for a moment, I sprang on, grabbed him by the shoulder and cuffed him around two or three times, and he blinked in bewilderment.
さあおれの部屋まで来いと引っ立てると、弱虫だと見えて、一も二もなく尾いて来た。  
"Come with me to my room," I said, hauling him along, and, being a coward at heart apparently, he followed along without a word of protest.
夜はとうにあけている。  
By now it was well past dawn.

おれが宿直部屋へ連れてきた奴を詰問し始めると、豚は、打っても擲いても豚だから、ただ知らんがなで、どこまでも通す了見と見えて、けっして白状しない。  
When I set about interrogating the pair I'd hauled back to the night-duty room, being pigs — hit them or beat them, pigs is all they are — they just played dumb and stuck to it, refusing to confess no matter what.
> «知らんがな» — dialect for «知らない»: «〜ん» here is the older/dialectal negative ending in place of standard «〜ない»; «がな» is the same Iyo sentence-tag seen earlier — 'I don't know' delivered with rural stubbornness.
そのうち一人来る、二人来る、だんだん二階から宿直部屋へ集まってくる。  
Meanwhile more of them kept showing up — one, then another — gradually gathering from the second floor down to the night-duty room.
見るとみんな眠そうに瞼をはらしている。  
Looking them over, they were all drooping sleepy-eyed.
けちな奴等だ。  
Stingy little wretches, the lot of them.
一晩ぐらい寝ないで、そんな面をして男と云われるか。  
Do they call it manly, going about with faces like that after not sleeping a wink all night?
面でも洗って議論に来いと云ってやったが、誰も面を洗いに行かない。  
"Go wash your faces and then come argue with me," I told them, but not one of them went off to wash.

おれは五十人あまりを相手に約一時間ばかり押問答をしていると、ひょっくり狸がやって来た。  
I was in the middle of about an hour's back-and-forth with fifty-odd of them when, all of a sudden, the Badger came ambling in.
あとから聞いたら、小使が学校に騒動がありますって、わざわざ知らせに行ったのだそうだ。  
I heard afterward that the janitor had gone out of his way to tell him there was a commotion at the school.
これしきの事に、校長を呼ぶなんて意気地がなさ過ぎる。  
To call in the principal over a thing this trifling shows a shocking lack of backbone.
それだから中学校の小使なんぞをしてるんだ。  
That's exactly why he's stuck being a middle-school janitor.

校長はひと通りおれの説明を聞いた。  
The principal heard my account of things through once.
生徒の言草もちょっと聞いた。  
He also listened a little to what the students had to say for themselves.
追って処分するまでは、今まで通り学校へ出ろ。  
"Until further disciplinary action is decided, come to school as usual.
> «出ろ» — plain imperative: The bare imperative of «出る» ('to go out, attend'), the principal's blunt command form to the assembled students — brisk and administrative rather than harsh.
早く顔を洗って、朝飯を食わないと時間に間に合わないから、早くしろと云って寄宿生をみんな放免した。  
Hurry up, wash your faces, and eat breakfast, or you won't be on time," he said, and let all the boarders go free.
手温るい事だ。  
Awfully soft-handed of him.
おれなら即席に寄宿生をことごとく退校してしまう。  
If it were up to me, I'd expel the whole lot of them on the spot.
こんな悠長な事をするから生徒が宿直員を馬鹿にするんだ。  
It's exactly this kind of leniency that lets the students make a fool of the man on night duty.
その上おれに向って、あなたもさぞご心配でお疲れでしょう、今日はご授業に及ばんと云うから、おれはこう答えた。  
On top of that, he said to me, "You must be quite worried and worn out — you needn't teach your classes today," and I answered him like this:
> «お〜でしょう» — polite sympathetic register: «お» + verb stem (連用形) + «でしょう» — 疲れ is the stem of the verb «疲れる», 'to get tired' — is a softening, faintly deferential way of expressing concern ('you must be tired') — the principal's smooth, official courtesy that Botchan finds almost too slick to trust.
> «〜ん» — classical/formal negative for «〜ない»: «及ばん» = «及ばない» ('there is no need to'). The older «〜ん» negative ending, still current in Meiji-era formal and dialectal speech alike, gives the principal's dismissal a clipped, old-fashioned politeness.
「いえ、ちっとも心配じゃありません。こんな事が毎晩あっても、命のある間は心配にゃなりません。授業はやります、一晩ぐらい寝なくって、授業が出来ないくらいなら、頂戴した月給を学校の方へ割戻します」校長は何と思ったものか、しばらくおれの顔を見つめていたが、しかし顔が大分はれていますよと注意した。  
"No, I'm not the least bit worried. Even if this happened every single night, so long as I'm alive I won't worry about it. I'll take my classes — if I couldn't teach after missing one night's sleep, I'd hand back the salary I've been paid to the school." The principal, for whatever reason, gazed at my face for a while, then remarked that my face had swollen up quite a bit.
なるほど何だか少々重たい気がする。  
Come to think of it, it did feel a little heavy.
その上べた一面痒い。  
On top of that it itched all over.
蚊がよっぽと刺したに相違ない。  
The mosquitoes must have bitten me plenty.
おれは顔中ぼりぼり掻きながら、顔はいくら膨れたって、口はたしかにきけますから、授業には差し支えませんと答えた。  
Scratching at my face all over, I answered that however swollen my face got, my mouth could still talk just fine, so there'd be no trouble teaching.
校長は笑いながら、大分元気ですねと賞めた。  
The principal laughed and praised me, saying I was in fine spirits.
実を云うと賞めたんじゃあるまい、ひやかしたんだろう。  
To tell the truth, he probably wasn't praising me — more likely poking fun.
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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.