和文英訳演習室2024年7月号

【訳文】ペンネーム　I am a cat.

I want to repeat this because it is so important. Whether you call it a Defense Force Reinforcement Fund or a surplus, it is practically the same: the government is attempting to issue more deficit-financing bonds and use them to increase defense spending, hiding its true intentions.

A monkey trainer during the Song Dynasty in China used to feed the monkeys horse chestnuts. One day, he tried to reduce the food supply because he was running out of money. When he first suggested giving them three nuts in the morning and four in the evening, the monkeys became furious. However, when he changed his suggestion to four in the morning and three in the evening, they were overjoyed. Since then, “deceiving someone by manipulating numbers when nothing has really changed” has been called “three in the morning and four in the evening.”

Both a Defense Force Reinforcement Fund and the diversion of a surplus at the end of the fiscal year are classic examples of this idiom.

At the end of 2022, another plan was temporarily put forward that also used government bonds as a means of secretly increasing the defense budget. This plan proposed extending the maturity of government bonds beyond the current 60 years, reducing the amount of money transferred from the general account to the special account of the State Debt Consolidation Fund. The government sought to allocate the difference to defense spending.

【検討会後の反省点】
※後日、追記する予定。

【今回の方針】【訳文提出前に考えたこと】
事情により、特になし。

(1パラ) 大変重要なことなので繰り返すが、防衛力強化資金にしても剰余金にしても、実質的には赤字国債の増発によって防衛費を賄うにもかかわらず、それをわかりにくくしているだけのことだ。 
（コメント）
コメントは、後日ぼちぼち入れていきます。
→ I want to repeat this because it is so important. Whether you call it a Defense Force Reinforcement Fund or a surplus, it is practically the same: the government is attempting to issue more deficit-financing bonds and use them to increase defense spending, hiding its true intentions.

(2パラa) 宋の国の猿回しが、飼っている猿にトチの実を与えていたが、貧乏になったので、トチの実を減らそうとした。
（コメント）
コメントは、後日ぼちぼち入れていきます。
→ A monkey trainer during the Song Dynasty in China used to feed the monkeys horse chestnuts. One day, he tried to reduce the food supply because he was running out of money.

(2パラb) 「朝に三個、夕方に四個にする」と猿たちに提案したところ、猿は激怒。そこで、「では、朝に四個、夕方に三個にする」と再提案したら、猿たちは大喜びした。
（コメント）
コメントは、後日ぼちぼち入れていきます。
→ When he first suggested giving them three nuts in the morning and four in the evening, the monkeys became furious. However, when he changed his suggestion to four in the morning and three in the evening, they were overjoyed.

(2パラc) これから、 「実態は何も変わらないのに、見かけを変えて目先の数字でごまかすこと」を「朝三暮四」というようになった。
（コメント）
コメントは、後日ぼちぼち入れていきます。
→ Since then, “deceiving someone by manipulating numbers when nothing has really changed” has been called “three in the morning and four in the evening.”

(3パラ) 防衛力強化資金も決算剰余金の活用も、「朝三暮四」以外の何物でもない。
（コメント）
コメントは、後日ぼちぼち入れていきます。
→ Both a Defense Force Reinforcement Fund and the diversion of a surplus at the end of the fiscal year are classic examples of this idiom.

(4パラa) 実際には国債によって賄っているにもかかわらず、それをわかりにくくするもう一つの案が、2022年の暮れに一時浮上した。
（コメント）
コメントは、後日ぼちぼち入れていきます。
→ At the end of 2022, another plan was temporarily put forward that also used government bonds as a means of secretly increasing the defense budget.

(4パラb) それは、国債償還期間を、現行の60年からさらに延長するというものだ。これによって一般会計から国債整理基金特別会計に振り込まれる繰入金が減少するので、その分を防衛費に充てようとする考えだ。
（コメント）
コメントは、後日ぼちぼち入れていきます。
→ This plan proposed extending the maturity of government bonds beyond the current 60 years, reducing the amount of money transferred from the general account to the special account of the State Debt Consolidation Fund. The government sought to allocate the difference to defense spending.

【参考資料】特になし。