地獄變

by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, 芥川龍之介

不瘋魔，不成活
日本文壇最鬼氣森森的異才──芥川龍之介
其短暫人生所投注的一切，就是為了成就作品的存在。

　　我總覺得人生在世和活在地獄之中毫無差別。
　　真奇怪，有時會覺得離開人群了，但人性的欲望依然很強烈嘛
　　以為是好人，有時卻是壞人。
　　不，與其說善惡什麼的，不如說是更相對的東西……

　　「良秀面對那火柱，宛如凝固般僵立在原地……多麼不可思議啊。一開始還在為地獄的折磨所苦惱的良秀，如今皺紋滿面的他，臉上卻浮現難以形容的神聖光輝，一種恍惚的喜悅……。看來女兒掙扎至死的情形，並沒有映在那個男人的眼中，只有美麗的火焰色彩，在裡面受苦的女人模樣，令他產生無限的歡悅。」

　　「與其作為人活著，不如作為魔而活著。」

　　被譽為「鬼才」和「短篇小說之神」的芥川龍之介，在日本文學史上擁有相當崇高的地位。芥川作品內容詭譎多變，他擅長描寫人物性格及其玄妙的心理轉折，洞悉人性最深層的醜惡與黑暗。並將自身對現實困境的不安、內在精神的痛苦、對人性的透徹，全傾注為文學藝術的魔化與極致之美。〈地獄變〉是他極具代表作的作品，透過極端化的人間悲劇，描寫權力與藝術對峙的主角

258 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1918

About the author

Akutagawa Ryūnosuke (芥川 龍之介) was one of the first prewar Japanese writers to achieve a wide foreign readership, partly because of his technical virtuosity, partly because his work seemed to represent imaginative fiction as opposed to the mundane accounts of the I-novelists of the time, partly because of his brilliant joining of traditional material to a modern sensibility, and partly because of film director Kurosawa Akira's masterful adaptation of two of his short stories for the screen.

Akutagawa was born in the Kyōbashi district Tokyo as the eldest son of a dairy operator named Shinbara Toshizō and his wife Fuku. He was named "Ryūnosuke" ("Dragon Offshoot") because he was born in the Year of the Dragon, in the Month of the Dragon, on the Day of the Dragon, and at the Hour of the Dragon (8 a.m.). Seven months after Akutagawa's birth, his mother went insane and he was adopted by her older brother, taking the Akutagawa family name. Despite the shadow this experience cast over Akutagawa's life, he benefited from the traditional literary atmosphere of his uncle's home, located in what had been the "downtown" section of Edo.

At school Akutagawa was an outstanding student, excelling in the Chinese classics. He entered the First High School in 1910, striking up relationships with such classmates as Kikuchi Kan, Kume Masao, Yamamoto Yūzō, and Tsuchiya Bunmei. Immersing himself in Western literature, he increasingly came to look for meaning in art rather than in life. In 1913, he entered Tokyo Imperial University, majoring in English literature. The next year, Akutagawa and his former high school friends revived the journal Shinshichō (New Currents of Thought), publishing translations of William Butler Yeats and Anatole France along with original works of their own. Akutagawa published the story Rashōmon in the magazine Teikoku bungaku (Imperial Literature) in 1915. The story, which went largely unnoticed, grew out of the egoism Akutagawa confronted after experiencing disappointment in love. The same year, Akutagawa started going to the meetings held every Thursday at the house of Natsume Sōseki, and thereafter considered himself Sōseki's disciple.

The lapsed Shinshichō was revived yet again in 1916, and Sōseki lavished praise on Akutagawa's story Hana (The Nose) when it appeared in the first issue of that magazine. After graduating from Tokyo University, Akutagawa earned a reputation as a highly skilled stylist whose stories reinterpreted classical works and historical incidents from a distinctly modern standpoint. His overriding themes became the ugliness of human egoism and the value of art, themes that received expression in a number of brilliant, tightly organized short stories conventionally categorized as Edo-mono (stories set in the Edo period), ōchō-mono (stories set in the Heian period), Kirishitan-mono (stories dealing with premodern Christians in Japan), and kaika-mono (stories of the early Meiji period). The Edo-mono include Gesaku zanmai (A Life Devoted to Gesaku, 1917) and Kareno-shō (Gleanings from a Withered Field, 1918); the ōchō-mono are perhaps best represented by Jigoku hen (Hell Screen, 1918); the Kirishitan-mono include Hokōnin no shi (The Death of a Christian, 1918), and kaika-mono include Butōkai(The Ball, 1920).

Akutagawa married Tsukamoto Fumiko in 1918 and the following year left his post as English instructor at the naval academy in Yokosuka, becoming an employee of the Mainichi Shinbun. This period was a productive one, as has already been noted, and the success of stories like Mikan (Mandarin Oranges, 1919) and Aki (Autumn, 1920) prompted him to turn his attention increasingly to modern materials. This, along with the introspection occasioned by growing health and nervous problems, resulted in a series of autobiographically-based stories known as Yasukichi-mono, after the name of the main character. Works such as Daidōji Shinsuke no hansei(The Early Life of

Reviews

[Ryo · Rating 4 out of 5]

「有時候人類會為了能夠滿足或是不能滿足的莫名慾望，窮畢生之力去追求。若有人笑為愚痴，說穿了對”人生”來說，那只不過是個陌路之人罷了。」

第二本芥川先生的短篇小說，書裡也是一系列詭異的短篇小故事，但這本裡的故事比羅生門還要深得我心🥰

其中最喜歡的短篇有書名的《地獄變》、《蜘蛛之絲》和《魔術》。

《地獄變》這篇故事的背景發生在平安時代，畫師良秀奉命畫一幅名為《地獄變》的屏風，第一眼看見這幅畫的心情只有驚嘆號，想必能畫出如此精湛傑作的大師一定是神，果不其然，他真的是”神”！ 如果你知曉他是如何畫出這樣的作品，一定也會覺得他很😱。
有時候為了創作出超凡的作品，難免要把靈魂出賣給魔鬼。 天才之所以爲天才，就是他們可以做出一般人類做不到的事。

《蜘蛛之絲》這篇很佛。 文章開頭就描寫釋迦摩尼佛在極樂世界的蓮池畔一人獨自漫步，蓮池底下即是地獄底層，這讓我聯想到萬世極樂教的教主，不相信天堂地獄之說。
佛祖看見地獄裡有好多罪犯正在受苦，突然想起，其中一名罪犯在生前曾經救過一隻蜘蛛，於是想給他答謝，於是試圖將他從地獄中拯救出來。 他放下一條蜘蛛絲，想讓那名罪犯從地獄底層爬上來⋯⋯⋯⋯
但他最後還是沒仍上來，至於為什麼上不來極樂世界呢⋯ 只能說：勿以惡小而為之 勿以善小而不為。

《魔術》 一名小生在大雨滂沱的夜晚去拜訪會使用魔術的印度人，而看完了印度人表演的魔術秀，目瞪口呆的他當然也想學習如何變出花樣。 什麼人都可以學魔術，唯獨有貪念的人是學不來的。
故事的最後⋯他沒學成魔術，畢竟這個世界不缺有貪念的人。
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我覺得芥川的短篇小說都蠻有意思的，字裡行間有著某種神秘感，而且又很切中要點，不會讓你感覺多此一舉(希望那些勵志語錄可以學學😄)，理性之下又蘊含溫柔的情感，不愧是文豪野犬的主角之一。

[Lewis Joan Sanders · Rating 5 out of 5]

沒有讀過原著——芥川龍之介寫的日文作品，一來是自己不精通日文，尤其是文學創作上使用的日文會更有難度；二是，沒有太多時間去慢慢閱讀日文原著。
最近在聽《羅生門》的有聲書，查看目錄時，驚覺部分故事和這個版本的《地獄變》是重疊的，其實就兩個，〈枯野抄〉和〈玄鶴山房〉。而〈枯野抄〉是我喜歡的故事之一，它是以著名俳句大師松尾芭蕉即將駕鶴西去為背景，非常細膩的刻畫了其弟子來去、其角、支考、乙洲等人的心理活動，對人性的思考是引入到了哲學的範疇的，這些心理沒有對與錯，因為這些都是很多人面臨較親近之人死亡時的思考模式。聽這則故事時，有一種陌生的感覺，恍然間才知覺，是中文譯本不一樣，究竟哪一個翻譯得更好？我沒有明顯的偏好，翻譯，我不是很懂。

[Mizuki]

Pre-review:

Well...the main reason for me to finally bring my lazy butt to read Akutagawa's novels is this:


(LINK: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bungo_S...)

Plus right now I am also moving to read Bungo Stray Dog fanfics online as well. *sweatdrops*

PS: my mother has a five-books collection of Ryūnosuke Akutagawa's short stories as well!

More to come, maybe?

[Ng Yan Kiu Chiemi · Rating 5 out of 5]

畫師良秀非常重視藝術，但他不善於想像，多半只能畫親眼所見之物，為精進畫藝，曾在路邊若無其事的素描屍體，或者以毒蛇攻擊自己的弟子，以便素描，這次他為了完成堀川命他畫的一扇「地獄變」屏風， 不惜犧牲自己的女兒，甚至在目睹女兒慘遭火刑驚心動魄的一幕時，良秀臉上竟露出喜悅的神情。作者認為人間之所以是比地獄更深的地獄，在於一個永遠無法解開的糾結：你活在世上只是因為你對別人來說還有用處，你所堅持的，亦有可能是被別人蔑視和玩弄的。只要你還活著，你就必須用這個糾結去換生存。如果良秀沒有用了，或者只要他跟大公發生衝突，大公隨時可以把他殺死，更不要說他的女兒。可笑的是，良秀還要在這個（被別人視作利用物的）才能上，堅持自己的理想，同時他失去了作為一個普通意義上人的資格，因為他放棄了自己最心愛的女兒，也放棄了人之⎡常情⎦。