所有の闇と光 : 二篇の詩の間(あわい)で

概要

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The desire for possessions or property is one of the most deep-rooted desires of human beings. As an inevitable elementary principle in both our private and public life, it has many aspects - from the instinctive desire for exclusive possession as in earthly love to the legal territorial rights such as estate-boundaries or borders. But far below all of these aspects, there is something unfathomable in the desire for possession, which comes from the darkness or defect in the humam soul. On the other hand, in universal Nature, in spite of all these human aspects of possession, there is something trans-human, which constantly denies our desire for possession. The present paper is a tentative approach to deeper speculations on the problem of pos-session through consideration of two fine poems, one by Robert Frost and the other by A. E. Housman, together with a superb short essay of E. M. Forster in between, all three implying the motif of possession in their own ways.