SOURCE: “Dazai Osamu's ‘Run, Moerus!’ and Friedrich Schiller's ‘Die Burgschaft,’” in Comparative Literature Studies, Vol. 24, No. 3, 1987, pp. 243–50.

In the following essay, Vardaman compares Dazai's short story “Run, Melos!” with Friedrich Schiller's ballad “Die Bürgschaft.”

Dazai Osamu (1909–48) is perhaps best known for his novels Shayō (The Setting Sun) and Ningen Shikaku (No Longer Human). As a result, he is usually viewed as a writer of gloom and decadence. However, there is a lighter, more optimistic side of Dazai which is visible in lesser-known works such as Otogi Zōshi (A Collection of Fairy Tales) and a reworking of tales modelled on stories by Saikaku. An obvious example of Dazai's “brighter” side is the short story “Hashire Merosu” (1940, “Run, Melos!”),¹ widely read in Japan as a story of fidelity and endurance in the face of adversity. Though most Japanese have read, or at least know of, the story, perhaps...