At Peace with Fate ／ Nakamura Shinichirō

His gentle and refined nature became a talent for discovering small joys even amid adversity. Even during his most unfortunate period in Yanagawa, this quality is conveyed to us through a warm gaze cast upon the lives of the farming men and women depicted in his Eight Views series. It teaches us that this man was a wise person who, at all times, knew how to reconcile himself with fate and consistently maintained an affirmative attitude toward life.
FromThe Life of Kakizaki Hakkyō, Shinchosha, 1989, p. 662.

※Please refer to
　乙箇吐壹（イコトイ）：夷酋列像 (1790年)／蠣崎波響: 本に溺れたい

Nakamura Shinichirō (1918–1997), a writer comparable to Mori Ōgai, presented to the world a historical-biographical trilogy during the latter part of his life through to his final years. In total, the trilogy comprises more than 2,000 pages. I wonder whether I will be able to finish reading it before I myself grow senile. Who knows how it will turn out.

If I can manage to post all of my impressions after reading them on my blog, perhaps that would mean the endeavor has been fulfilled. Without haste and without rest, I think I will give it a try.

 Rai Sanyō and His Times, Chūōkōronsha, 1971 (Nakamura aged 53), 644 pages
The Life of Kakizaki Hakkyō, Shinchosha, 1989 (aged 71), 687 pages
The Salon of Kimura Kenkadō, Shinchosha, 2000 (aged 82), 758 pages

 Postscript
To resist fate in youth, compromise with it in middle age, and reconcile with it in old age—
This is the path every person must tread.
Though I myself have already grown old, I cannot quite say I have reconciled so smoothly.
Since there may still be some time left in my life, I think I’ll wait a little longer and see how things go.

※This article is an English translation of the following article.
運命と和解する／中村真一郎: 本に溺れたい