神戸女学院大学英文学会（Kobe College Society of English Studies）は本学英文学科卒業生および大学院英文学専攻修了生の学術研究とさらなる発展に向けて、年次大会を年１回開催して、卒業生で若き研究者による研究発表（英米文学と英語学）をしていただき、同時に、日本を代表する研究者を外部よりお迎えして特別講演をしていただき（たとえば、1998年度は小池滋氏、1999年度は河上誓作氏に来ていただき）在学生の向学心をさらに推進することをめざしています。また、年１回発行のニューズレターを通じて、会員の活動、英文学科の現状などを会員のみなさまにお伝えしています。

2010年度（11月26日）

第35回 神戸女学院大学英文学会 (KCSES) 大会報告

　A university is a place for deep thought, a place where many thinkers can meet to share knowledge and learn together. That is the spirit of the Kobe College Society for English Studies - a forum for the teachers, graduate students and graduates of Kobe College to share our common interest in the world of English.
The 35th annual meeting of the Society was held in L-28, as usual on the last Friday of November. We were pleased to have many students, teachers, graduate students, alumni of the English Department and members of the public in attendance. This year's keynote lecture was given by Stephen Henry Gill, a well-known British poet who has produced many radio programmers for the BBC about Japan. The talk, entitled ‘Bringing Japanese Images to the World’, provided the audience with many vivid examples of how Stephen Gill had educated his listeners about the glories of Japanese culture. Playing extracts from his radio programmes and reading a selection of international haiku, the speaker explained how he had been able to concretely explain Japanese poetry, religion, art and daily life to the listeners of the BBC.
The Society meeting also featured three short presentations from graduate students and an alumnus of the English Department. The first presentation, by Okita Kae, focussed on Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson. The second presentation, by Tanaka Mariko, explained the process of ‘Inclusive Education’ in Japanese schools. The final presentation, by Yamawaki Noe outlined of the life of Abe Masa, an early graduate of Kobe College. The standard of the presentations was very high and we look forward with anticipation to forthcoming events.

特別講演　
BRINGING JAPANESE IMAGES TO THE WORLD - OF INSECTS, RAIN, STREET HAWKERS, A BELL AND A HORSE -

　The motto of haiku is “Show, don't tell.” For 20 years or more, I have been trying through radio progerammes broadcast on the B. B. C. to introduce aspects of Japanese nature and culture to Britain, but I have always been aware that showing is much better than telling. For example, rather than telling the audience all about the habits, size and diet of a suzumushi, how much better it is to listen to one and read a haiku like this:
にぎやかな乞食の床や蟲の声
How bright and lively
Is the bed of the beggar -
Crickets cry.
(Chiyo-ni)
So what sort of images are the British likely to be interested in ? We have four seasons, quite like those of Japan, although they say that in Britain you can experience them all in a single day! Some enjoy, for example, the quiet bleakness of late autumn and winter:
And the red reynard (fox) creeps
To his hole near the river,
The copper leaves fall
And the bare trees shiver.
(Osbert Sitwell)
So seasonal images are liked by us, and Japan has lots of them! In one of my programmes, I used this beautiful image by Gyodai together with gagaku music and the sound of whales singing!
暁や鯨の吼える霜の海
By the clear light of dawn
Whales frolic,
Whining, bellowing
In the frosty sea.
To tell a good story, it is sometimes necessary to have a hero, and in one programme the hero was a little uguisu, or bush-warbler. The changing seasons were felt as they affected the warbler's territory, and a nice relationship was built up with a man living in the nearest house.
Another animal, on which I once made a programme was the horse. In Britain we love horses, and they are treated very well, but in my researches about the Japanese horse, I soon realized that they were used not so much to ride as to carry things through the mountains (packhorse)... and to eat, too!
Nowadays threre are not many horses in Japan, but when the first Westerners arrived in Meiji, there were plenty. Isabella Bird, an intrepid British female traveler and writer, left us many anecdotes about problems she had with horses in Japan! But for a vivid image, I again turned to haiku, and especially to senryu:
笠を食う馬の口にもあるリズム
In the mouth of a horse
Munching a straw hat,
There is also
A certain rhythm!
When it comes to inanimate things - telegraph poles, scarecrows, and temple bells, foe example - I found that Japanese also regard these as having a life of their own! In Britain, things are just things...
Ash on an old man's sleeve
Is all the ash the burnt roses leave.
(T.S.Eliot)
Interviewing a bell-founder in Kyoto for a programme recently made me realize that a bell is not just a mixture if copper and tin, but that it also has a divine role. “A Sacred Bell resounds in the three worlds, not just one - those of the past, the present and the future.”
Making radio programme leads to so many opportunities to compare Japan's nature, culture, culture and literature with those of my own country, and to meet some very special people. However many questions I may wish to ask an interviewee, though, the most important thing is just to listen: like a fisherman, I wait patiently to see what I might catch in my recording ‘net’.