三島由紀夫與川端康成同是１９６３年諾貝爾文学獎候選人

Recently the Asahi News on-line reported the following:

三島由紀夫、ノーベル文学賞候補だった　１９６３年推薦

2014年1月3日22時00分

作家の三島由紀夫（１９２５～７０）が、１９６３年にノーベル文学賞候補としてスウェーデン・アカデミーに初推薦され、最終選考リスト一歩手前の候補６人の中に入っていたことがわかった。ノーベル財団が２日、公式サイトで発表した。ノーベル賞の候補者や選考過程は５０年間非公開。その期間が過ぎたことから公開された。

　財団によると、三島は６３年、アイルランド出身でフランス在住の劇作家サミュエル・ベケット（６９年受賞者）らと並び、６人まで絞り込まれたリストの中に入った。「仮面の告白」（４９年）「潮騒」（５４年）「金閣寺」（５６年）などを発表し、海外でも知られていた。だが、「ほかの日本人候補と比べて優先されるほどの作家性がまだない」と判断され、３人の最終選考候補からは漏れたという。６３年の文学賞は結局、ギリシャの詩人イオルゴス・セフェリスが受賞している。

　６３年に推薦された候補は８０人。この中には４人の日本人がいた。三島以外の３人は、６１年から推薦されていた川端康成（６８年受賞者）と、５８年から候補リストに名前があった谷崎潤一郎、詩人の西脇順三郎とみられる。８０人のうち２２人は初めて推された人物で、フランスのドゴール大統領（当時）も含まれていた。

(試譯文)

Top of Form

Bottom of Form

·    

It turned out that writer Yukio Mishima (1925-70) in 1963 was for the first time recommended to the Sweden academy as a candidate for the Nobel Prize for literature, and he was as close as entering into the final selection list that had six candidates. Nobel Foundation announced this at its official site on the 2nd. The candidate names and screening process of the Nobel Prize were not for disclosure for 50 years. It was opened to the public when this period had passed.

     Mishima, according to the Foundation, in 1963 was ranked with others including the dramatist Samuel Beckett (the winner in 1969) who was from Ireland and lived in France. He entered into a list which was narrowed down to six people. He released the "Confession of a mask" (1949), the "Roars of the sea" (1954), the "Kinkakuji Temple" (1956) etc. which were also famous overseas. While it was judged and said that "compared with other Japanese candidates there is still no other creative writing style to the extent that priority should be given", he was dropped from the final selection list that had three candidates. In the end, the literary award for 1963 went to Giorgos Seferis the Greece poet.

    The number of candidate recommended in 1963 was 80 people; there were four Japanese in this list. Other than Mishima the three others were Yasunari Kawabata (winner of 1968) who had been recommended since 1961, together with Jun'ichiro Tanizaki whose name was on the candidate list since 1958, and the poet Junsaburo Nishiwaki. Out of these 80 people, 22 were recommended for the first time, including France's President De Gaulle (at that time).

It was interesting to note that Yukio Mishima was so close to receiving the Nobel Prize award in 1963.