II
Here I must confess that in “Of Human Bondage” I wrote about how Philip Cary practiced painting in the hope of becoming an artist, but, actually, in those days, I was quite dedicated to writing dramas, some say genteel dramas that would touch upon social tendencies which had later spread all over Europe, the phenomenon that celebrated class people who had now started to realize changes in their living circumstances. They were the people in the world who could live on their ancestors’ wealth. Till then, they had never felt the necessity of changing in their routine lives to work for bread and butter. I refered to the change of the social atmosphere, and that was what caused them to be driven into the alley where they had to give consideration to various occupations to earn a livelihood for themselves. The drama “Lady Frederic” was one of such dramas I wrote which enjoyed an especially long run stages in the London theaters. Mr. Makoto Miyakawa, the Willie XXI, I think, who was listed in my memo book, did the elaborate work for translation the dramas I wrote, including “Lady Frederic” and some other collected ones into Japanese and they are now appearing in Japanese literary society. However, he dared not put a price on them. I assume that it will become necessary because he will have to reprint them in large numbers of copies as the market may require them in a decade or so time once his works will be recognized by young readers in university classrooms or others concerned with literary and theatre running artists. This Willie XXI is quite a charming fellow with a mustache and he looks somehow like myself when I also used to wear one in my snobbish days. His translation works can be counted on more than five fingers. One day, however he confessed to me that, “I will not do any more translation work. I feel a little tired of it.” but when I telephoned him, the other day, he said he still was engaged in that work even after his retirement from his former occupation as an English instructor in a senior high school.