下記画像の場合で言えば、Perplexity AIが自動生成したプロンプト文は、”The description provided matches the character of Peter Pan from J.M. Barrie’s novel. Peter Pan is depicted as a boy with a green hat with a feather, wearing a green tunic, and having blonde hair. He can fly, lives in the magical world of Never”というものである。（NeverlandではなくNeverとなっているのは、Perplexity AIが画像生成エンジンに渡すプロンプト文の長さに制限があるため、文章が途中でカットされたものと思われる。）
#### ピーター・パンは、Sir James Matthew Barrie(1860年5月9日 – 1937年6月19日）によって創作されたキャラクターであり、1904年に発表された戯曲『ピーター・パン：大人にならない少年』（Peter Pan; or, the Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up）や1911年に発表された小説『ピーターとウェンディ』（Peter and Wendy）の主人公であり、空を飛ぶことができる。
The description provided matches the character of Peter Pan from J.M. Barrie’s novel. Peter Pan is depicted as a boy with a green hat with a feather, wearing a green tunic, and having blonde hair. He can fly, lives in the magical world of Never
A statement from our CEO, Sam Altman, on May 20, 2024: “The voice of Sky is not Scarlett Johansson’s, and it was never intended to resemble hers. We cast the voice actor behind Sky’s voice before any outreach to Ms. Johansson. Out of respect for Ms. Johansson, we have paused using Sky’s voice in our products. We are sorry to Ms. Johansson that we didn’t communicate better.”
We believe that AI voices should not deliberately mimic a celebrity’s distinctive voice—Sky’s voice is not an imitation of Scarlett Johansson but belongs to a different professional actress using her own natural speaking voice. To protect their privacy, we cannot share the names of our voice talents.
#####英訳例１ It was one evening at dusk.A servant was waiting for the rain to stop under Rashomon.
Apart from this man, there was no one else under the wide gate. Only a single cricket perched on a large pillar, its vermilion lacquer peeling in places. Since Rashomon was located on Suzaku Avenue, one would expect at least two or three others—wearing city hats or squeezed hats—taking shelter from the rain besides this man. However, there was no one else but him.
#####英訳例２ One evening, a servant was waiting for the rain to stop under the Rashomon gate.
Besides him, there was no one else under the wide gate, except for a cricket perched on a large, partially peeled red pillar. Given that the Rashomon was on Suzaku Avenue, there should have been at least two or three others, wearing ichimegasa hats or eboshi caps, taking shelter from the rain. However, there was no one else but him.
“It was one evening at dusk.A servant was waiting for the rain to stop under Rashomon.” – 修正点: “evening at dusk”は冗長です。”at dusk”だけで十分です。また、「Rashomon」の前に定冠詞「the」を追加する必要があります。 – 修正案: “It was dusk. A servant was waiting for the rain to stop under the Rashomon gate.”
“Apart from this man, there was no one else under the wide gate.” – 修正点: ここは明確で、文法的にも正しいです。
“Only a single cricket perched on a large pillar, its vermilion lacquer peeling in places.” – 修正点: ここも明確で、文法的に正しいです。
“Since Rashomon was located on Suzaku Avenue, one would expect at least two or three others—wearing city hats or squeezed hats—taking shelter from the rain besides this man.” – 修正点: “city hats” や “squeezed hats” は適切な訳ではありません。日本の文化を考慮して「市女笠」と「揉烏帽子」を具体的に説明する方が良いです。 – 修正案: “Since Rashomon was located on Suzaku Avenue, one would expect at least two or three others—wearing ichimegasa hats or eboshi caps—taking shelter from the rain besides this man.”
“However, there was no one else but him.” – 修正点: ここは明確で、文法的に正しいです。
全体の修正案:
“It was dusk. A servant was waiting for the rain to stop under the Rashomon gate. Apart from this man, there was no one else under the wide gate. Only a single cricket perched on a large pillar, its vermilion lacquer peeling in places. Since Rashomon was located on Suzaku Avenue, one would expect at least two or three others—wearing ichimegasa hats or eboshi caps—taking shelter from the rain besides this man. However, there was no one else but him.”
### 英訳例2
わかりやすさと文法的正確性のチェック:
“One evening, a servant was waiting for the rain to stop under the Rashomon gate.” – 修正点: ここは明確で、文法的に正しいです。
“Besides him, there was no one else under the wide gate, except for a cricket perched on a large, partially peeled red pillar.” – 修正点: “partially peeled red pillar” は「部分的に剥がれた赤い柱」を指しており、文法的には問題ないが、「red」を「vermillion」にすることで元の文に忠実になります。 – 修正案: “Besides him, there was no one else under the wide gate, except for a cricket perched on a large, partially peeled vermilion pillar.”
“Given that the Rashomon was on Suzaku Avenue, there should have been at least two or three others, wearing ichimegasa hats or eboshi caps, taking shelter from the rain.” – 修正点: ここは明確で、文法的に正しいです。
“However, there was no one else but him.” – 修正点: ここも明確で、文法的に正しいです。
全体の修正案:
“One evening, a servant was waiting for the rain to stop under the Rashomon gate. Besides him, there was no one else under the wide gate, except for a cricket perched on a large, partially peeled vermilion pillar. Given that the Rashomon was on Suzaku Avenue, there should have been at least two or three others, wearing ichimegasa hats or eboshi caps, taking shelter from the rain. However, there was no one else but him.”
1. “It was one evening at dusk.” – 修正理由: “one evening at dusk” は冗長であり、”one” は不要。 – 修正案: “It was an evening at dusk.”
2. “A servant was waiting for the rain to stop under Rashomon.” – 修正理由: “Rashomon” の前に “the” を追加して特定の門を示す。 – 修正案: “A servant was waiting for the rain to stop under the Rashomon gate.”
3. “Apart from this man, there was no one else under the wide gate.” – 修正理由: “Apart from this man” はやや不自然。 “Besides this man” の方が自然。 – 修正案: “Besides this man, there was no one else under the wide gate.”
4. “Only a single cricket perched on a large pillar, its vermilion lacquer peeling in places.” – 修正理由: “Only a single cricket” は “a single cricket” で十分。 – 修正案: “A single cricket perched on a large pillar, its vermilion lacquer peeling in places.”
5. “Since Rashomon was located on Suzaku Avenue, one would expect at least two or three others—wearing city hats or squeezed hats—taking shelter from the rain besides this man.” – 修正理由: “city hats or squeezed hats” は不自然。日本語の「市女笠」や「揉烏帽子」をそのまま使う方が良い。 – 修正案: “Since Rashomon was located on Suzaku Avenue, one would expect at least two or three others—wearing ichimegasa hats or eboshi caps—taking shelter from the rain besides this man.”
6. “However, there was no one else but him.” – 修正理由: “but him” は “but for him” の方が自然。 – 修正案: “However, there was no one else but for him.”
### 修正後の英訳例1
It was an evening at dusk. A servant was waiting for the rain to stop under the Rashomon gate.
Besides this man, there was no one else under the wide gate. A single cricket perched on a large pillar, its vermilion lacquer peeling in places. Since Rashomon was located on Suzaku Avenue, one would expect at least two or three others—wearing ichimegasa hats or eboshi caps—taking shelter from the rain besides this man. However, there was no one else but for him.
1. “One evening, a servant was waiting for the rain to stop under the Rashomon gate.” – 修正理由: 文法的には問題ないが、”One evening” の後にカンマを追加して文を区切る。 – 修正案: “One evening, a servant was waiting for the rain to stop under the Rashomon gate.”
2. “Besides him, there was no one else under the wide gate, except for a cricket perched on a large, partially peeled red pillar.” – 修正理由: “partially peeled red pillar” は “partially peeled vermilion pillar” の方が原文に忠実。 – 修正案: “Besides him, there was no one else under the wide gate, except for a cricket perched on a large, partially peeled vermilion pillar.”
3. “Given that the Rashomon was on Suzaku Avenue, there should have been at least two or three others, wearing ichimegasa hats or eboshi caps, taking shelter from the rain.” – 修正理由: “the Rashomon” は “Rashomon” で十分。 – 修正案: “Given that Rashomon was on Suzaku Avenue, there should have been at least two or three others, wearing ichimegasa hats or eboshi caps, taking shelter from the rain.”
4. “However, there was no one else but him.” – 修正理由: “but him” は “but for him” の方が自然。 – 修正案: “However, there was no one else but for him.”
### 修正後の英訳例2
One evening, a servant was waiting for the rain to stop under the Rashomon gate.
Besides him, there was no one else under the wide gate, except for a cricket perched on a large, partially peeled vermilion pillar. Given that Rashomon was on Suzaku Avenue, there should have been at least two or three others, wearing ichimegasa hats or eboshi caps, taking shelter from the rain. However, there was no one else but for him.
Google Gemini Advanceの場合には、ChatGPT4oやPerplexity AIとは異なり、上記のようなプロンプト文ではあまり適切な回答を生成しなかった。二つの英訳例を与えるのではなく、下記のように一つづつ与えた方がより適切で、より詳細なチェックがなされた。 また同一プロンプト文に対して、同時に３つの回答が作成され、ワンクリックで簡単に見ることができるようになっている。
Gemini Advanceは、ChatGPT4oやPerplexityとは異なり、「文学」的観点からのチェック作業をしっかりとおこなっている。回答結果の適切性は別として、英語化に際してどのような視点からのチェックを行うべきなのかについて、有益な示唆を与えている。 また、回答１では、市女笠や揉烏帽子という語句の訳に関して、a city woman in her ichimegasa hat, or a couple of men in their eboshi caps. というように、「市女笠を被った女性」、「揉烏帽子を被った男性」というように語句を補った英訳となっている点も、ChatGPT4oやPerplexityよりも優れている。 ただし、回答１では「市女笠を被った女性」を単数形としているにもかかわらず、「揉烏帽子を被った男性」を複数形としている点はあまり適切とは思えない。また「丹塗」の色に関する形容詞に関して「red」から「vermillion」に変更する修正提案がない点は少し不適切と思われる。
#####英訳例 One evening, a servant was waiting for the rain to stop under the Rashomon gate. Besides him, there was no one else under the wide gate, except for a cricket perched on a large, partially peeled red pillar. Given that the Rashomon was on Suzaku Avenue, there should have been at least two or three others, wearing ichimegasa hats or eboshi caps, taking shelter from the rain. However, there was no one else but him.
One evening, a lone servant waited beneath the Rashomon gate for the rain to subside. The wide gateway stood empty save for him and a cricket perched atop one of the large, red pillars, its paint peeling in places. Considering the Rashomon’s location on Suzaku Avenue, one might have expected to find at least a few others seeking refuge from the downpour—perhaps a city woman in her ichimegasa hat, or a couple of men in their eboshi caps. Yet, there was no one.
修正理由
lone servant: 原文の「一人」を強調し、孤独感を表現しました。
waited beneath: 「下で」をより自然な英語に置き換えました。
subside: 「やむ」をより詩的な表現にしました。
stood empty save for him: 「ほかに誰もいない」を強調し、門の寂しさを表現しました。
atop: 「に」をより正確に表現しました。
city woman in her ichimegasa hat: 「市女笠」をより具体的に説明しました。
a couple of men in their eboshi caps: 「揉烏帽子」を複数形にし、より自然な表現にしました。
seeking refuge from the downpour: 「雨やみをする」をより具体的な行動で表現しました。
One evening, a lone servant waited beneath the Rashomon gate for the rain to stop.
The wide gate offered shelter to no one but him, save for a cricket perched on a large, red pillar, its paint peeling in places. One might expect to find at least a few others huddled here, seeking refuge from the rain under ichimegasa hats or eboshi caps, given the Rashomon’s location on Suzaku Avenue. Yet, there was no one.
修正理由
One evening, a lone servant waited…: 原文の「ある日の暮方の事である」の雰囲気を出すため、「lone」を追加し、たった一人で待っている状況を強調しました。
The wide gate offered shelter to no one but him…: 「Besides him, there was no one else under the wide gate」をより詩的な表現に修正しました。
save for a cricket…: except for よりも古風な言い回しで、原文の雰囲気に合うように変更しました。
its paint peeling in places: partially peeled red pillar をより自然な英語表現にしました。
One might expect to find…: Given that the Rashomon was on Suzaku Avenue を、仮定法を使ってより間接的な表現にしました。
huddled here: taking shelter from the rain を、より具体的な表現にしました。
Yet, there was no one: However, there was no one else but him を、短く、しかし強い表現にしました。
One evening, a lone servant was waiting out the rain under the Rashomon gate. The wide gate stood empty save for him and a cricket perched on one of the large pillars, its vermilion paint flaking in spots. One might have expected to find at least two or three others huddled here, seeking refuge from the rain under ichimegasa hats or eboshi caps, given the Rashomon’s location on Suzaku Avenue. But no, the servant was utterly alone.
市女笠や揉烏帽子という語句の訳に関して、wearing ichimegasa hats (straw hats) or eboshi caps (black-lacquered headgear worn by nobles)といった修正案を提示している点などが評価できる。
—- Google Gemini Advanceに与えたのと同じプロンプト文を与えた場合の、Claude3 Opus(Perplexity AI)による回答 —-
Here is my assessment of the English translation, along with suggested revisions and reasons:
The translation is generally clear and understandable. The grammar is mostly accurate, but there are a few points that could be improved:
1. “One evening” could be made more specific to match the original text’s mention of “暮方”. I suggest revising to:
“One evening at dusk, a servant was waiting for the rain to stop under the Rashomon gate.”
2. The second sentence has an unnecessarily complex structure. I recommend splitting it into two sentences for better clarity:
“Besides him, there was no one else under the wide gate. Only a cricket was perched on one of the large red pillars, its paint peeling in places.” This improves the flow and makes each detail easier to visualize.
3. In the last sentence, “there should have been” sounds a bit awkward. Consider this revision:
“Given that the Rashomon was on Suzaku Avenue, one might expect to see at least two or three others taking shelter from the rain, wearing ichimegasa hats or eboshi caps. However, there was no one else but him.” This sounds more natural while still conveying the same meaning.
4. I would also recommend adding a brief explanation of the ichimegasa hats and eboshi caps, as readers unfamiliar with the historical context may not understand these terms. You could add a brief clause:
“…wearing ichimegasa hats (straw hats) or eboshi caps (black-lacquered headgear worn by nobles).”
Overall, with these minor adjustments for clarity and flow, the translation effectively conveys the atmosphere and details of the original Japanese text. The suggested revisions aim to make the English version even more accessible and engaging for the target audience.[1][2][3]
Microsoft Bing AIを利用して芥川龍之介『羅生門』を英訳させた結果は下記の通りである。
— Microsoft Bingによる英訳
Ryunosuke Akutagawa Rashomon
It happened one evening. A servant was waiting for the rain to stop under the gate of Rashomon. He was alone; no one else was there except for a cricket perched on one of the large, partially red-painted pillars. Given that Rashomon was located on the Suzaku Avenue, one would expect to see a few more people seeking shelter from the rain, such as women with market baskets or men with umbrellas. But there was no one else.
The reason was that in the past few years, Kyoto had suffered a series of disasters such as earthquakes, typhoons, fires, and famines. As a result, the city had become desolate. According to old records, people had even resorted to selling wood from destroyed Buddha statues and religious ornaments, which were piled up by the roadside. With the city in such a state, no one bothered to repair Rashomon. Consequently, it became a den for foxes and thieves, and eventually, it even became a dumping ground for unclaimed corpses. Thus, as soon as it got dark, everyone avoided the area near the gate.
Instead, crows had started to gather there. During the day, one could see them flying around the high finials of the gate, cawing and circling. Especially at sunset, when the sky above the gate turned red, the crows were clearly visible, like sesame seeds scattered across the sky. Naturally, they came to peck at the flesh of the dead bodies on the gate. However, today, perhaps because it was late, not a single crow was in sight. Only their droppings could be seen, dotted white on the overgrown, crumbling stone steps. The servant sat on the top step, his washed-out indigo trousers under him, absent-mindedly watching the rain fall while he fidgeted with a large boil on his right cheek.
Earlier, I wrote that the servant was waiting for the rain to stop. However, even if the rain stopped, he had no particular place to go. Normally, he would return to his master’s house, but he had been dismissed a few days ago. As mentioned before, the city of Kyoto was in decline, and the servant’s dismissal was a small repercussion of this downturn. Therefore, it would be more accurate to say that the servant, caught in the rain, had nowhere to go and was at a loss. Moreover, today’s weather had significantly affected the servant’s sentimentalism. The rain that started falling around the hour of the Monkey (3-5 PM) showed no sign of stopping. So, the servant, needing to figure out how to survive the next day, aimlessly followed his thoughts while listening to the sound of the rain falling on Suzaku Avenue.
The rain enveloped Rashomon, gathering a rustling sound from afar. The evening darkness lowered the sky, and looking up, one could see the gate’s roof supporting heavy, dark clouds on its diagonally protruding tiles.
To find a way out of an impossible situation, one cannot be choosy about the means. If one is selective, they will end up starving to death on the roadside or under a mound of earth and eventually be discarded like a dog on top of the gate. If one is not selective—The servant’s thoughts circled back to the same conclusion after much deliberation. However, this “if” remained an “if” indefinitely. While affirming the idea of not being selective about the means, the servant lacked the courage to positively affirm the inevitable conclusion that followed: “There is no other choice but to become a thief.”
Here is the continuation of the translation in clear English:
—
The servant sneezed loudly and then, with some effort, stood up. The evening chill in Kyoto was such that one would desire a brazier to ward off the cold. The wind blew unreservedly between the pillars of the gate, accompanied by the twilight. The cricket that had been perched on the red-painted pillar had also gone somewhere else.
Hunching his neck and raising the shoulders of his indigo blue work coat over his yellow sweatshirt, the servant looked around the gate. He was looking for a place where he could spend the night comfortably, without fear of the rain or being seen by others. Fortunately, his eyes caught a wide, red-painted ladder leading up to the tower above the gate. If there were people above, they would only be corpses. With this in mind, the servant stepped onto the first rung of the ladder, careful not to let the sword at his waist slip from its sheath.
A few minutes later, a man was crouched halfway up the wide ladder leading to the tower of Rashomon, holding his breath and peering up. The light of a fire from above faintly illuminated his right cheek, which bore a boil amidst his short beard. The servant had assumed that the only ones above were the dead. But as he climbed a few steps, he saw that someone was tending a fire above, moving it around. The murky, yellowish light flickered on the cobweb-covered ceiling, making it immediately apparent.
The servant, silent as a gecko, finally climbed to the top of the steep ladder. He flattened his body as much as possible and stretched his neck forward, peering fearfully into the tower.
Inside, he saw several corpses thrown carelessly about, just as the rumors had described. However, the range of the firelight was narrower than he had expected, and he could not tell how many there were. All he could make out were some naked corpses and others clothed. It seemed there were both men and women among them. The corpses lay scattered on the floor, their mouths agape and hands outstretched, resembling clay figures so much that one might doubt they had ever been living humans. The dim firelight cast shadows on the lower parts of their bodies, making them appear even darker, while they lay in eternal silence.
The servant involuntarily covered his nose from the stench of decay, but almost immediately, he forgot to do so. A strong emotion had nearly robbed him of his sense of smell.
For the first time, the servant noticed a human figure crouching among the corpses. It was a short, thin, white-haired old woman, dressed in a cypress-bark colored kimono, resembling a monkey. She held a pine torch in her right hand and seemed to be peering into the face of one of the corpses. Judging by the length of the hair, it was probably a woman’s corpse.
The servant, driven by six parts fear and four parts curiosity, had momentarily forgotten to breathe. To borrow the words of an ancient chronicler, he felt as if “the hairs on his body were thickening.” Then the old woman, inserting the pine torch between the floorboards, began to pluck the long hairs from the corpse’s head, one by one, as a monkey might pick lice from its young. The hair seemed to come out easily.
As each hair was plucked, the servant’s fear gradually dissipated, replaced by a growing intense hatred—not necessarily towards the old woman, but rather a general revulsion towards all evil, which grew stronger by the minute. If someone had presented the servant with the choice he had pondered earlier under the gate—whether to die of starvation or become a thief—he would have chosen starvation without hesitation. His hatred for evil burned as fiercely as the pine torch the old woman had stuck in the floor.
Of course, the servant did not understand why the old woman was plucking the hair from the corpses. Therefore, he could not rationally decide whether it was good or evil. However, for the servant, the mere act of plucking hair from the dead on this rainy night atop Rashomon was an unforgivable evil. Naturally, he had long forgotten that he had been contemplating becoming a thief himself just a short while ago.
Then, with a surge of energy in his legs, the servant leaped up from the ladder. Striding boldly with his hand on the hilt of his sword, he approached the old woman, who was understandably startled.
The old woman, upon seeing the servant, leaped up as if shot from a crossbow. “Where do you think you’re going?” the servant shouted, blocking the old woman’s path as she stumbled over the corpses in a panic, trying to flee. The old woman tried to push past the servant, but he pushed back, refusing to let her go. The two grappled silently among the corpses for a while, but the outcome was clear from the start. The servant finally grabbed the old woman’s arm and forced her down. It was an arm of skin and bone, like a chicken’s leg.
— Here is the final part of the story translated into clear and understandable English:
—
“What were you doing? Speak, or else this is what awaits you.” The servant, having pushed the old woman away, suddenly drew his sword, flashing the white steel before her eyes. But the old woman remained silent. Her hands trembled, and she gasped for breath, her eyes wide open as if they might pop out, stubbornly silent as if mute. Seeing this, the servant realized for the first time that the old woman’s life and death were entirely at his mercy. This awareness gradually extinguished the fierce hatred that had been burning within him. All that remained was a tranquil sense of accomplishment, as if a task had been successfully completed. Softening his voice, the servant looked down at the old woman and said, “I am not an officer of the Keibi-eisei (police). I am just a traveler who happened to pass by this gate. There’s no need for me to tie you up or anything like that. All you need to do is tell me what you were doing up here at this hour.”
The old woman then looked up at the servant with even wider eyes, observing him with the sharp gaze of a carnivorous bird. She moved her wrinkled lips, which were almost merged with her nose, as if chewing on something. Her thin throat and the pointed Adam’s apple moved visibly. Then, from her throat, a voice as hoarse as a crow’s caw reached the servant’s ears, gasping, “I was pulling out this hair, this hair, to make a wig.”
The servant was disappointed by the old woman’s answer, which was unexpectedly mundane. And with the disappointment, the previous hatred returned, accompanied by a cold disdain. Perhaps sensing his mood, the old woman, still holding the long hair she had plucked from the corpse, spoke in a croaking voice, stuttering, “Indeed, pulling hair from the dead may be a terrible thing. But all the dead here are people who deserve no better. The woman whose hair I was pulling sold dried snake pieces, claiming they were dried fish, to the samurai camps. If she hadn’t died of the epidemic, she would still be selling them now. And her ‘dried fish’ was said to taste so good that the samurai always bought it for their meals. I don’t think what she did was wrong; she had no choice but to avoid starvation. So, I don’t think what I was doing was wrong either. I also have no choice but to avoid starvation. And this woman, who knew all too well about having no choice, would probably forgive me for what I’m doing.”
The old woman said something to that effect.
The servant sheathed his sword and listened to her story with a detached air, holding the hilt with his left hand. Of course, he was still concerned about the large boil on his right cheek. But as he listened, a certain courage began to grow within him—a courage that had been lacking when he was under the gate and which was now moving in a completely different direction from the courage he had felt when he first climbed up to the gate and captured the old woman. The servant was no longer torn between starving to death or becoming a thief. At that moment, the thought of starvation was so far from his mind that it was almost inconceivable.
“Is that so?” he said mockingly after the old woman finished her story. Then, stepping forward, he suddenly released his hand from the boil and, grabbing the old woman by the collar, said fiercely, “Then you won’t blame me for stripping you. I, too, must do this to avoid starving to death.”
The servant quickly stripped the old woman of her clothes. Then, as she clung to his legs, he roughly kicked her down onto the corpses. It was only five steps to the ladder’s entrance. Clutching the cypress-bark colored kimono he had taken, the servant swiftly descended the steep ladder into the depths of the night.
After lying motionless as if dead for a while, the old woman soon rose from among the corpses, her naked body illuminated by the still-burning fire. Groaning, she crawled to the mouth of the ladder and looked down from the gate. Outside, there was nothing but the pitch-black night.
The whereabouts of the servant remain unknown.
—
This concludes the translation of the excerpt from Ryunosuke Akutagawa’s “Rashomon.” If you have any more requests or need further assistance, please let me know. I hope this translation helps you understand the continuation of the story. If you need further assistance or have more text to translate, please let me know. —
I hope this translation conveys the essence and subtleties of the original text. If you need further assistance or another section translated, feel free to ask.
It was one evening at dusk.A servant was waiting for the rain to stop under Rashomon. Apart from this man, there was no one else under the wide gate. Only a single cricket perched on a large pillar, its vermilion lacquer peeling in places. Since Rashomon was located on Suzaku Avenue, one would expect at least two or three others—wearing city hats or squeezed hats—taking shelter from the rain besides this man. However, there was no one else but him.
The reason was that, in the past two or three years, Kyoto had been struck by successive calamities such as earthquakes, whirlwinds, fires, and famines. Consequently, the desolation of the capital was unparalleled. According to old records, people smashed Buddhist statues and altar fittings and piled up the wood covered with vermilion and gold or silver leaf by the roadside to sell as firewood. Given the state of the city, no one cared to repair Rashomon. Taking advantage of this ruin, foxes and raccoons made it their home, thieves moved in, and eventually, it became customary to bring unclaimed corpses to this gate and abandon them. As a result, when darkness fell, people avoided coming near the gate due to the creepy atmosphere.
In exchange, many crows gathered from somewhere. During the day, one could see these crows flying in circles around the high ridgepole, cawing as they went. Particularly when the sky above the gate turned red with the evening glow, the crows looked as if sprinkled with sesame seeds, clearly visible. The crows, of course, came to peck at the flesh of the corpses lying on the gate. However, perhaps because it was late today, not a single crow was visible. Only the white spots of crow droppings stuck here and there on the stone steps, which were crumbling in places and had long grass growing from the cracks, could be seen. The servant sat on the top step of the seven-storied stone steps, placing the hem of his washed-out navy-blue kimono on the step, idly gazing at the falling rain while worrying about a large pimple on his right cheek.
Earlier, the author wrote that the servant was waiting for the rain to stop. However, the servant had no particular plans even if the rain stopped. Normally, he would have returned to his master’s house. But a few days ago, his master had dismissed him. As mentioned before, the city of Kyoto was in a state of unprecedented decline. The fact that this servant was dismissed by his master, for whom he had worked for many years, was a small ripple caused by this decline. Therefore, it would be more accurate to say that the servant, caught in the rain, had nowhere to go and was at a loss, rather than saying he was waiting for the rain to stop.
Furthermore, today’s weather had not a little influence on this Heian era servant’s sentimentality. The rain that began falling in the late afternoon showed no signs of stopping. Thus, the servant, trying to find a way to get through tomorrow’s livelihood—attempting to do the impossible—had been absentmindedly listening to the sound of rain falling on Suzaku Avenue for some time.
The rain enveloped Rashomon, gathering the sound from afar with a loud roar. The evening twilight gradually lowered the sky, making the roof of the gate, with its eaves protruding obliquely, appear to support heavy, dark clouds.
To do the impossible, there was no time to be choosy about means. If he were choosy, he would simply starve to death on the ground under the mud wall or by the roadside. And then he would be brought to this gate and thrown away like a dog. If he were not choosy—after repeatedly treading the same path of thought, the servant finally reached this conclusion. However, this “if” was still an “if” indefinitely. Even though the servant acknowledged the need to be unchoosy about means, he still lacked the courage to positively affirm that he had no choice but to become a thief to resolve this “if.”
The servant sneezed loudly and then stood up reluctantly. Kyoto was so chilly that an iron brazier was almost necessary. The wind blew freely between the gate’s pillars along with the evening twilight. The cricket that had perched on the vermilion pillar had already gone somewhere.
A few minutes later, the man was crouching like a cat, holding his breath, on the middle step of the wide ladder leading up to the Rashomon loft, peering up to see what was happening. The faint light from above barely illuminated the man’s right cheek. His cheek, with a red pimple amidst short stubble, caught the light. The servant had assumed from the start that only corpses were up there. However, after climbing two or three steps, he saw someone had lit a fire up there and was moving it around. The murky, yellowish light flickered across the cobweb-covered ceiling, making it immediately clear. Given that someone had lit a fire in Rashomon on this rainy night, they were certainly no ordinary person.
The servant, stealing his way up like a gecko, crawled up the steep ladder to the very top. Flattening his body as much as possible, stretching his neck as far forward as he could, he cautiously peered into the loft.
Inside the loft, as the rumors had it, several corpses were carelessly thrown about. But the light’s reach was narrower than expected, making it impossible to count the bodies. He could vaguely tell that some corpses were naked while others were clothed. Apparently, there were both men and women among them. The corpses lay sprawled across the floor, with their mouths open and arms outstretched, so lifeless that it was hard to believe they had once been alive. The dim light from the fire cast shadows, making the high parts of their shoulders and chests stand out, rendering the low parts even darker, leaving them eternally silent like dumb figures.
The servant instinctively covered his nose against the stench of the rotting corpses. But the next moment, he forgot about covering his nose. A strong emotion almost entirely stole his sense of smell.
The servant’s eyes, for the first time, spotted a person squatting among the corpses. A short, skinny old woman with white hair like a monkey, wearing a hinoki (cypress) colored kimono. The old woman held a lit pinewood splinter in her right hand, peering intently into the face of one of the corpses. Seeing the long hair, it was probably a woman’s corpse.
Moved by sixty percent fear and forty percent curiosity, the servant temporarily forgot to breathe. Borrowing the words of the old records’ author, he felt as if his body hair stood on end. Then the old woman stuck the pinewood splinter between the floorboards and began pulling out the hair of the corpse she had been staring at, like a monkey picking lice off its young. The hair seemed to come out easily.
As each strand of hair was pulled out, the servant’s fear gradually diminished. Simultaneously, a fierce hatred toward the old woman arose. — To say “toward the old woman” might be misleading. Rather, an increasing aversion to all evil grew by the minute. If someone had now presented the servant with the dilemma he faced under the gate earlier — starving to death or becoming a thief — he would have unhesitatingly chosen to starve. His hatred for evil was now burning fiercely, like the pinewood splinter the old woman had stuck in the floor.
Of course, the servant didn’t understand why the old woman was pulling out the dead woman’s hair. Therefore, he couldn’t logically decide if it was good or bad. However, for the servant, just the act of pulling out a dead person’s hair on this rainy night in Rashomon was already an unforgivable evil. Of course, he had long forgotten his earlier thoughts of becoming a thief.
So, the servant mustered his strength and suddenly jumped up from the ladder. With his hand on his tachi, he strode up to the old woman in large steps. It goes without saying that the old woman was startled.
Upon seeing the servant, she jumped up as if shot by a crossbow.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
The servant blocked the old woman’s path as she stumbled over the corpses in panic, cursing her. Even so, the old woman tried to push past him. The servant pushed her back, preventing her from escaping. For a while, they wrestled silently among the corpses. However, the outcome was evident from the start. The servant eventually grabbed the old woman’s arm and forcibly threw her down. Her arm was as thin as a chicken’s leg, all bones and skin.
“What were you doing? Tell me. If you don’t, this is what you’ll get.”
The servant pushed the old woman away and quickly drew his tachi, thrusting the white steel in front of her eyes. But the old woman remained silent. Her hands shook uncontrollably, her shoulders heaving as she panted, her eyes bulging out of their sockets in mute defiance. Seeing this, the servant became acutely aware that the old woman’s life was entirely under his control. This awareness quietly cooled the fiery hatred in his heart. What remained was a serene satisfaction and a sense of accomplishment from completing a task. So, looking down at the old woman, the servant softened his voice and said,
“I’m not a police officer from the Kebiishi office. I’m just a traveler who happened to pass by this gate. So I won’t tie you up or anything. All you have to do is tell me what you were doing up here.”
The old woman stared intently at the servant’s face with wide, sharp eyes, like those of a carnivorous bird. Then she moved her almost indistinguishable lips, which were so wrinkled they seemed fused with her nose, as if chewing on something. Her thin throat moved, and the sharp Adam’s apple was visible. Then, from that throat, a voice like a crow’s cawing, broken and raspy, reached the servant’s ears.
“I was pulling out this hair… to make a wig.”
The servant was disappointed by the old woman’s unexpectedly ordinary answer. And simultaneously with the disappointment, his previous hatred, mixed with a cold contempt, seeped back into his heart. This sentiment seemed to reach the old woman. Still holding the long hair taken from the corpse’s head, the old woman mumbled, her voice croaking like a toad.
“Indeed, pulling out dead people’s hair might be bad. But all these dead people here deserve such treatment. That woman whose hair I was pulling out was selling snake meat cut into four-inch pieces as dried fish to the samurai. If she hadn’t died of disease, she would still be selling it now. Moreover, the dried fish she sold was so tasty that the samurai never missed buying it as a side dish. I don’t think what she did was bad. She did it because she would starve otherwise. So, I don’t think what I was doing was bad either. I have to do this, too, to avoid starving. This woman, who knew the necessity of my actions, would surely understand what I was doing.”
The old woman roughly said this.
The servant, sheathing his tachi and holding the hilt with his left hand, listened coldly to her story. Of course, with his right hand, he absently touched the large pimple on his cheek. But as he listened, a certain courage grew in his heart. It was the courage that had been missing when he was under the gate earlier. And it was entirely opposite to the courage he had when he climbed the gate and captured the old woman. The servant no longer hesitated between starving and becoming a thief. At that moment, starving to death was so far from his consciousness that he couldn’t even consider it.
“Is that so?”
When the old woman finished her story, the servant mockingly confirmed. Then he took a step forward, suddenly removing his right hand from his pimple and grabbing the old woman’s collar, saying,
“Then you won’t mind if I rob you. I have to do it too, or I’ll starve.”
The servant swiftly tore off the old woman’s kimono. Then, he roughly kicked her, who tried to cling to his legs, onto the corpses. It was barely five steps to the mouth of the ladder. With the hinoki-colored kimono tucked under his arm, the servant descended the steep ladder into the night in a flash.
Shortly after, the old woman, who had been lying motionless among the corpses, slowly rose, groaning and muttering. Using the remaining firelight, she crawled to the mouth of the ladder. Peering out with her short white hair hanging down, she saw only the pitch-black night outside.
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One evening, a servant was waiting for the rain to stop under the Rashomon gate. Besides him, there was no one else under the wide gate, except for a cricket perched on a large, partially peeled red pillar. Given that the Rashomon was on Suzaku Avenue, there should have been at least two or three others, wearing ichimegasa hats or eboshi caps, taking shelter from the rain. However, there was no one else but him.
The reason for this was that in the past few years, Kyoto had been struck by disasters such as earthquakes, tornadoes, fires, and famines. As a result, the city had fallen into significant decline. According to historical records, people would smash Buddhist statues and ornaments, pile the timber coated with red or gold leaf by the roadside, and sell it as firewood. Given this state of affairs, no one bothered to repair the Rashomon gate, allowing it to become a haven for foxes and thieves. Eventually, people began to bring unclaimed corpses to the gate and leave them there. Consequently, as darkness fell, everyone avoided the gate, finding it eerie.
In contrast, crows gathered in large numbers from somewhere. During the day, they could be seen flying around the high shibi (decorative ridge-end tiles) of the gate, crying and circling. Particularly when the sky above the gate turned red with the evening glow, the crows appeared clearly like sprinkled sesame seeds. Of course, the crows came to peck at the flesh of the corpses on top of the gate. However, today, perhaps because it was late, not a single crow was visible. Only the white crow droppings were scattered here and there on the crumbling stone steps overgrown with long grass. The servant sat at the top of the seven stone steps, his washed-out navy blue kimono trailing behind him, idly watching the rain while picking at a large pimple on his right cheek.
The author wrote earlier that the servant was waiting for the rain to stop. However, the servant had no particular plan even if the rain stopped. Normally, he would have returned to his master’s house, but his master had dismissed him four or five days ago. As previously mentioned, Kyoto was in a state of decline at that time. The fact that the servant, who had been employed by his master for many years, was now dismissed was a small ripple of this decline. Therefore, it would be more accurate to say that the servant, caught in the rain, had nowhere to go and was at a loss.
Moreover, today’s weather affected the servant’s sentiment. The rain that had started falling since late afternoon showed no sign of letting up. Thus, the servant, contemplating his immediate future and how to survive the next day—trying to find a solution to an unsolvable problem—listened absentmindedly to the sound of the rain falling on Suzaku Avenue.
The rain enveloped the Rashomon, gathering distant sounds. The twilight gradually lowered the sky, and looking up, the roof of the gate, with its protruding eaves, supported heavy, dark clouds.
To deal with an impossible situation, one cannot afford to be choosy about the means. If one were to be selective, one would end up starving to death either under the earthen wall or on the roadside. Then, one’s body would be brought to this gate and discarded like a dog. If one were not selective, the servant’s thoughts, after repeatedly traversing the same path, finally reached this conclusion. However, this “if” remained a mere “if.” Although the servant affirmed that he could not afford to be choosy, he lacked the courage to affirm positively that “there is no choice but to become a thief.”
The servant sneezed loudly and then stood up laboriously. Kyoto, chilled by the evening cold, was now cold enough to need a firebox. The wind blew unreservedly through the pillars of the gate, along with the twilight. The cricket perched on the red-painted pillar had already gone somewhere.
The servant, shrinking his neck and raising his shoulders in the navy blue kimono over a yellow kosode, looked around the gate. He thought that if there was a place where he could spend the night comfortably without fear of the rain and wind or being seen, he would stay there. Fortunately, he noticed a wide red-painted ladder leading up to the gate’s upper story. If there were people up there, they would only be corpses. The servant cautiously placed his foot on the lowest rung of the ladder, ensuring that the sword at his waist did not make a sound.
A few minutes later, a man crouched like a cat on the middle rung of the wide ladder leading to the Rashomon’s upper story, holding his breath and peering up. The faint light from above dimly illuminated his right cheek, covered in short stubble and a large pimple filled with pus. The servant had assumed from the beginning that only corpses would be up there. However, when he climbed two or three rungs, he saw that someone above had lit a fire and was moving it around. This was immediately apparent from the yellow, murky light reflecting off the ceiling, covered in cobwebs. Since someone had lit a fire in this Rashomon on a rainy night, they were certainly no ordinary person.
The servant crept up the steep ladder like a gecko, eventually reaching the top rung. Flattening his body as much as possible, he craned his neck forward and cautiously peered into the upper story.
He saw, as rumored, several corpses lying carelessly, but the range of the fire’s light was narrower than he expected, so he couldn’t tell how many there were. He could vaguely discern that some corpses were naked, while others wore clothes. Men and women seemed to be mixed among them. These corpses, looking more like clay dolls than once-living humans, lay sprawled on the floor, mouths open, hands outstretched. The parts of the bodies illuminated by the fire’s dim light made the shadows of the lower parts even darker, remaining eternally silent like the mute.
The servant instinctively covered his nose against the stench of the rotting corpses. However, the next moment, he forgot about covering his nose, as a powerful emotion almost entirely overwhelmed his sense of smell.
For the first time, the servant saw a living person among the corpses. It was a short, thin, white-haired old woman dressed in a hinoki-bark-colored kimono. She held a lit pinewood splinter in her right hand and was peering intently at one of the corpses’ faces, presumably that of a woman, given the long hair.
Driven by a mix of 60% fear and 40% curiosity, the servant momentarily forgot to breathe. Borrowing the words of an old chronicler, “even his hair stood on end.” The old woman then stuck the pinewood splinter between the floorboards and began to pluck the long hair from the corpse’s head one by one, like a monkey picking fleas from its young. The hair seemed to come out easily.
As the hair was plucked one by one, the servant’s fear gradually diminished. Simultaneously, his intense hatred for the old woman began to grow. To be precise, his aversion to all evil increased by the minute. If someone had brought up the question of whether to starve to death or become a thief, as he had pondered earlier under the gate, he would have chosen to starve without hesitation. Such was his burning hatred for evil, as fierce as the flame in the old woman’s pinewood splinter.
The servant had no idea why the old woman was plucking the corpse’s hair. Thus, he did not know whether to judge it good or evil. However, for him, the mere act of plucking a dead person’s hair on a rainy night in Rashomon was already unforgivable evil. Of course, he had long forgotten that he had considered becoming a thief just moments before.
With this resolve, the servant gathered his strength and leaped from the ladder. Holding his hand on the hilt of his sword, he strode towards the old woman. The old woman was undoubtedly startled.
At the sight of the servant, the old woman sprang up as if shot from a bow. “Where do you think you’re going?” The servant blocked the old woman’s way as she tried to flee in a panic, cursing her. The old woman still tried to push past him. The servant, too, tried to stop her. The two grappled in silence among the corpses. However, the outcome was clear from the start. The servant finally grabbed the old woman’s arm and forcibly twisted it, just like a chicken’s leg, all skin and bones. “What were you doing? Speak! If you don’t, I’ll cut you down!” The servant thrust his sword’s white steel blade in front of her eyes after shoving her aside. But the old woman remained silent, her hands trembling, her breath ragged, her eyes bulging. Seeing this, the servant realized for the first time that the old woman’s life was entirely in his hands. This realization unexpectedly cooled the burning hatred in his heart, leaving only the calm satisfaction of having completed a task.
Looking down at the old woman, the servant softened his voice a little. “I am not an official of the Keibii-shi (imperial police). I am merely a traveler who happened to pass by this gate. I have no intention of tying you up or anything like that. Just tell me what you were doing up here.” The old woman, still wide-eyed, stared intently at the servant’s face. Her hawk-like, sharp eyes with red-tinged eyelids scrutinized him. Then, moving her lips as if chewing something, her thin throat revealing the movement of her pointed Adam’s apple, she croaked out in a voice like a crow’s: “I was plucking this hair, plucking this hair, to make a wig.” The servant was disappointed by the old woman’s surprisingly mundane response. As disappointment set in, the previous hatred, now tinged with cold contempt, returned to his heart. Sensing this change, the old woman, still holding the long hair she had plucked from the corpse’s head, mumbled like a croaking toad: “Indeed, plucking a dead person’s hair may be wrong. But all the dead here are people who deserve such treatment. The woman whose hair I just plucked used to sell dried snake pieces as dried fish to samurai. If she hadn’t died of disease, she would still be selling them. Her dried fish were so tasty that the samurai bought them regularly. I don’t think what she did was wrong. She did it out of necessity to avoid starvation. So, I don’t think what I’m doing is wrong either. I’m doing it out of necessity to avoid starvation. This woman would likely understand my situation and overlook what I’m doing.” The old woman roughly conveyed this meaning.
The servant listened coldly, holding the sword hilt in his left hand and fiddling with the large, pus-filled pimple on his cheek with his right hand. However, as he listened, a certain courage welled up within him—a courage he lacked when he contemplated starvation or theft earlier. This courage was entirely different from the one he felt when capturing the old woman. The servant was no longer torn between starving to death or becoming a thief. In fact, from his current state of mind, the idea of starving seemed almost absurd, having been pushed entirely out of his consciousness. “Is that so?” The servant sarcastically confirmed the old woman’s story. Then, stepping forward, he suddenly released his hand from the pimple and grabbed the old woman’s collar, biting out: “Then you won’t mind if I rob you. I have to do this to avoid starving.” The servant quickly stripped the old woman’s kimono and roughly kicked her onto the corpses as she clung to his legs. The ladder was only five steps away. The servant, clutching the stolen hinoki-bark-colored kimono, quickly descended the ladder into the darkness.
Not long after, the old woman, who had lain as if dead among the corpses, raised her naked body. Muttering and groaning, she crawled to the ladder’s edge by the light of the still-burning fire and looked down. Outside, there was nothing but the vast darkness of the night. No one knew where the servant had gone.
Shohei Ohtani, born July 5, 1994, in Oshu, Iwate, Japan, is a professional baseball player recognized for his rare ability to excel as both a pitcher and hitter. Ohtani attended Hanamaki Higashi High School, where he demonstrated his talents and was noted for his 99 mph fastball. He entered Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) with the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters in 2013, quickly making an impact with his dual-threat capabilities.
Early Career in Japan Ohtani’s time in NPB was marked by significant achievements. In his rookie year, he recorded a 3.53 ERA and hit .238. By 2014, he had improved his pitching and batting, achieving a 2.61 ERA and hitting 10 home runs. His 2016 season was particularly outstanding; he posted a 10-4 record with a 1.86 ERA and hit 22 home runs with a .322 average, earning him the Pacific League MVP award.
Transition to MLB Ohtani transitioned to Major League Baseball (MLB) in 2018, signing with the Los Angeles Angels. His rookie season was notable, despite an elbow injury that limited his pitching. He finished with a .285 batting average, 22 home runs, and a 3.31 ERA in 10 starts, earning the AL Rookie of the Year award. However, Tommy John surgery in 2018 and subsequent injuries in 2019 limited his pitching.
Historic 2021 Season Ohtani’s 2021 season was historic. He was selected for the All-Star Game as both a pitcher and hitter, a first in MLB history. He finished the season with 46 home runs, 100 RBIs, 26 stolen bases, and a 9-2 record with a 3.18 ERA. His exceptional performance earned him the AL MVP award.
International Success Ohtani also played a crucial role in international competitions. In the 2023 World Baseball Classic (WBC), he led Japan to victory, showcasing his skills on a global stage. His ability to perform under pressure further solidified his reputation as a top-tier athlete.
Recent Career and Impact In 2024, Ohtani signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers, continuing his exceptional career. He is celebrated for his unique skill set, which has drawn comparisons to Babe Ruth. Ohtani’s impact on baseball is profound, as he challenges the traditional separation between pitchers and hitters. His success has inspired many and brought significant attention to the sport globally.
Personal and Cultural Impact Beyond his on-field achievements, Ohtani has become a cultural icon. His humility, work ethic, and exceptional talent have made him a beloved figure in Japan and internationally. His influence extends beyond baseball, contributing to increased interest and viewership of the sport.
Honors and Awards Ohtani’s list of accolades is extensive. He has been named an MLB All-Star multiple times, won the AL MVP award, and earned numerous Player of the Week and Month honors. His achievements in NPB include the Pacific League MVP and Best Nine awards.
Conclusion Shohei Ohtani’s career is a testament to his extraordinary talent and versatility. His ability to excel as both a pitcher and hitter is unprecedented in modern baseball. Ohtani continues to break barriers and set new standards, making him one of the most remarkable athletes of his generation.
Question 1: What team does Shohei Ohtani currently play on? A. Los Angeles Dodgers B. New York Yankees C. Los Angeles Angels D. Boston Red Sox
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Question 2: Where is Shohei Ohtani’s hometown? A. Tokyo B. Osaka C. Iwate D. Fukuoka
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Question 3: What is Shohei Ohtani’s pitching and batting style? A. Right-handed pitcher, left-handed batter B. Left-handed pitcher, left-handed batter C. Right-handed pitcher, right-handed batter D. Left-handed pitcher, right-handed batter
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Question 4: What type of player is Shohei Ohtani known for being? A. Two-way player B. Pitcher C. Outfielder D. Infielder
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Question 5: What league does Shohei Ohtani currently play in? A. NPB (Nippon Professional Baseball) B. KBO (Korea Baseball Organization) C. MLB (Major League Baseball) D. CPBL (Chinese Professional Baseball League)
Question 1: What team does Shohei Ohtani currently play on? A. Los Angeles Dodgers B. New York Yankees C. Los Angeles Angels D. Boston Red Sox
Question 2: Where is Shohei Ohtani’s hometown? A. Tokyo B. Osaka C. Iwate D. Fukuoka
Question 3:What is Shohei Ohtani’s pitching and batting style? A. Right-handed pitcher, left-handed batter B. Left-handed pitcher, left-handed batter C. Right-handed pitcher, right-handed batter D. Left-handed pitcher, right-handed batter
Question 4: What type of player is Shohei Ohtani known for being? A. Two-way player B. Pitcher C. Outfielder D. Infielder
Question 5: What league does Shohei Ohtani currently play in? A. NPB (Nippon Professional Baseball) B. KBO (Korea Baseball Organization) C. MLB (Major League Baseball) D. CPBL (Chinese Professional Baseball League)
