It is not a regret to not read Kawabata Yasunari 's " Snow Country ", just like not grasping the flying catkins that pass by in spring, or not keeping the white snow that falls in the palm of your palm in winter. They clearly exist in this world, but they disappear suddenly, as if their appearance was just to prove that they are in this world, not to stay in this world for a long time.
"Snow Country" is such a work. It is the slow and quiet burning snow. Every line of words is burned silently after reading it. It is indeed burning long enough, long enough to cross the boundary between life and death. ——The beginning of "Snow Country" is a sign of death. Ye Zi escorted the man, a young man with a waxy hand and a thin body, but with a "happy and harmonious atmosphere". When Ye Zi gently sneered her When the dying lover gently and innocently wrapped the scarf and coat hem, he kept watching her island village, feeling that the two of them "had forgotten the so-called distance and walked towards the boundless distance." In the middle of the article, Xing Man has died, but his cold and bare grave, like death itself, separated the two female leaves and foals and with a silent blade, and in the end, the leaves are in the snow. She fell to death from the burning fire. She fell silently and did not raise dust when she fell, just in the middle of "the freshly spreading flames and the revived flames", just like snow in the night sky falling silently and lightly In the palm of my palm that was so hot due to excitement.
Kawabata Yasunari (1899-1972), a Japanese writer, was born in Osaka . In 1968, he won the Nobel Prize in Literature for "sharp feelings, superb narrative skills, and expressing the spiritual essence of the Japanese", and became the first in Japan. The author who won the award.
"At this moment, life and death seem to have stopped." Although this sentence near the end of "Snow Country" has always been rarely quoted, it seems to point out the Samadhi of this masterpiece that starts with dying and ends with dying. Death also has special significance for the author Yasunari Kawabata. Maybe it’s better to quote the nickname that has been quoted too much but is appropriate. He is a “celebrity attending the funeral.” In his " self-proclaimed ", he counts his dead relatives one by one:
"My grandfather died on May 24, 1914... Before my grandfather died, my grandmother died when I was 8 years old, my mother I died when I was 4 years old, and my father died when I was 3 years old. My only sister was fostered at my aunt's house and died when I was about 10 years old. "More than 0 years later, Kawabata wrote that his father, who had been ill for a long time due to tuberculosis , Before his death, he struggled to write the word "protective" for himself as a lesson. Kawabata, who was only 3 years old, could not understand the meaning of death. His cousin later told him: "When your father died, you Still a child. The house is bustling, and you are very happy. But you seem to hate nailing nails on the coffin, and you don’t let it be, making everyone feel embarrassed. "—If you die in his tender heart With profound scars, this statement is very inaccurate. In his short story "Oil", he once described his mood:
"My father died when I was 3 years old, and my mother died the next year, so I have no impression of my parents. My mother didn't even leave any photos. My father might have liked to take photos because of her beauty. When I was selling my house in my hometown, I found thirty or forty photos of him of all ages in the warehouse. I once included them. The best shot was placed on the table in the middle school dormitory as a decoration, but after the next few changes to the residence, all of these photos were lost. However, even if you see the photos, you can't remember anything, so although you imagine that this is your father , still has no actual feeling. I didn’t feel so kind when I heard others talk about my parents, and I immediately forgot about it. "
Kawabata has a strange indifferent attitude towards death. In "Snow Country", the death of a man is A very important part of promoting the development of the plot - the death of Aoi Man from tuberculosis is also a reflection of Kawabata's parents' death due to tuberculosis and to some extent - however, the description of his death was only brought up by a few words.That was the nominal fiancée Komako in Xingnan. When she was bidding farewell to Shimamura, she hurriedly ran over, "gasping heavily, as if a child was trying to avoid terrible things and hugged her mother." Said: "Ah, Sister Ju, Xingnan, he... Sister Ju, go back quickly! The situation is not good. Quick!" Although Jun Zi "closed her eyes and her face turned pale", she shook her head and refused. Go and see the dying man. When Shimamura used the traces of the deceased's emotions with her: when she was sold to Tokyo, he was the only one who saw her off. The beginning of her diary was that he was asking Komako, "Is there any reason not to send him off? Go and remember you on the last page of his life. "
"No, I don't want to see a person's death, I'm afraid."
Shimamura's question and Komako's answer. It seems to give this dilemma an answer, but this answer is so confusing, "It sounds like a cruel and ruthless, but also like an overly passionate." After this, Kumazi also refused to visit the grave for the dead man, but Ye Zi insisted on visiting the grave for the man. Wandering between Komako and Yezi is like wandering between two concepts of death. Although Kawabata has always claimed that Shimamura is not a portrayal of the author himself, his view on death is probably what Kawabata knows about death in his heart. The feeling of Shimamura sitting on the train leaving the Snow Country may also be Kawabata's feelings for the dead who left the world as a living person. "It seems that he has sat on something unrealistic, lost the concept of time and distance, and fell into a confused and trance. In vain, let it carry its body to run."
The Shimamura on the train fantasized whether it was the moment he boarded the train. The man just died - the deceased only met him on the train heading to the Snow Country, but he became his The whisper in my mind that was lingering for a long time in the center of the return journey, as if his death was related to him, and even a direct causal connection. After all, Komako refused to see Xingnan for the last time, using the excuse of saying goodbye to him, after all, he himself He was already deeply involved in this death that had nothing to do with him but was connected with him.
At the end of "Snow Country", Shimamura witnessed the process of leaves falling from the upper floor and dying. When the leaves fell, Komako screamed and covered her eyes with her hands, but Shimamura "started at them without blinking" - he finally witnessed the moment of death, but felt that Ye Zi "is not dead, she is inside Life is transforming into something else”.
But what exactly is this? When Shimamura attempted to approach Komako holding leaves, she was "a group of men pushed and shoved to the side." His eyes also moved away from his body of death and towards the night sky above his head. " Milky Way seemed to have a rush, pouring down into his heart." If we look at the perspective of the theme of love commonly used by literary critics, the ending of this Milky Way is like a redemption for the cleansing of the soul, but in fact, this redemption was completed as early as the moment the leaf died. Because Shimamura no longer has to worry about the relationship between Ye Zi and Komako, death has made a choice for him. However, from the perspective of death, this is a deeper fall. The pouring Milky Way not only does not wash away the anxiety in the heart, but will instead hit it hard, drown it, bringing deeper pain and suffocation. At that time, a kind of delusion of death that could not be eliminated was like the snow everywhere in the snow country, which was both in accordance with the heart and in accordance with the heart.
For Kawabata, snow is an existence between reality and dream, existence and nothingness, and death is the same. Kawabata once described a seemingly unintentional past of a young man in a short article titled "Remembering Unintentionally", but this past incident happened to involve his own death. It was a summer, and he went to the river in Yodogawa to have a trip:
"I once went to the river alone to take a nap. The water flowed without knees, lying on the sand, sleeping naked. The boatman mistakenly thought it was a drowning death, so he rowed the boat over. ."
This time, the experience of being mistakenly regarded as a dead person made Kawabata unexpectedly see the ultimate beauty: "I woke up when I heard the boatman's shouts, and saw the continuous group of sails between the sky and the reeds. It was so beautiful ”.
The boy Yasunari Kawabata was photographed in 1917, at the age of 18.
He also witnessed those forced deaths. In the summer of 1945, on the eve of Japan's defeat, a group of young men in their prime were instigated by the slogan of "sacrificing their lives for the country". As the kamikaze special attack Team members perform suicide mission. In Kawabata's eyes, which had always scoffed at war fanaticism, this was a futile death and did not help to save Japan's final fate of defeat. But for those teenagers who were deceived and forced to sacrifice, he wrote:
"This is forced death, created death, and played death; in fact, I don't think it's so-called death, but the result of the behavior becomes death, Acting is death at the same time."
On April 16, 1972, Kawabata Yasunari briefly said "I'll go for a walk" and left Kamakura 's home. It was 2:45 pm. At 9:45 pm, his assistant found that he had not returned home yet, so he went to the studio of the apartment building to look for him and found him lying in a quilt with a gas pipe in his mouth and a newly opened whiskey wine bottle next to his pillow And the wine glass - he died like this.
did not find suicide note, and there seemed to be no warning before death. But when people recalled the clues before, they found that the seemingly ordinary details mixed in daily life seemed to be the signs of death he deliberately left behind. He had practiced drinking whiskey in advance, and as early as ten years ago, he said, "It is best to commit suicide without a letter. A silent death is infinite life."
Perhaps, before "suicide without suicide", the word "deliberate" should be added. Just like the death of Ye Zi arranged in "Snow Country", the sudden fire burned violently under the night sky pouring in the galaxy, in the boundless snow country, and death fell silently there.
Everything has happened, but it seems that it has never happened.
Life and death, sincerity and hypocrisy, truth and dream, persistence and relief-the novelist's truth and real novelist. Although this imagination is too vulgar, please write it down. The flying catkins in April are like heavy snow covering the sky, blurring the pedestrian's vision. The warm spring breeze harshly rolls up piles of flying catkins, like snow. Under the scorching spring light, this is a snow country in another world, and there, a thin boy sleeps naked until the snow in his dream is awakened and disappeared by the ungrateful readers. (Li Xiaen)
"Biography of Kawabata Yasunari", author: (Japanese) Otani No Atsushi, translator: Zhao Zhongming, version: Zhejiang Literature and Art Publishing House April 2022
"My index finger remembers you the most"
00000, after growing up, I finally I understood the meaning of the sentence in "Snow Country" - "My index finger remembers you the most", which made me very excited. When talking about this during the teaching period of Osaka University , the female students immediately laughed with understanding, but the male students looked confused. Later, I also talked about this topic at University of Tokyo , Meiji University and other schools, but it was the reaction of Osaka University students that satisfies me the most. Generally speaking, most male students are unknown, and some people wrote in a small paper submitted: "When I think of you, I masturbate with this finger." The degree to which male students maintain virginity is beyond imagination.
However, in one of the prototypes of "Snow Country", which was originally published in the magazine, "The Mirror of Twilight" wrote "The fingers still remember the feeling of touching your hair". In the final version, this sentence obviously became a different meaning. This is also a effort to avoid scrutiny.
After understanding this, you can understand how Shimamura and Komako talk while having sex. So, can we think of "Snow Country" as a masterpiece? Not so. I cannot understand the significance of the existence of the two women, Komako and Ye Zi in the work, nor can I understand the mediocrity of Shimamura; the relationship between the students suffering from lung disease and Komako and Ye Zi, and the relationship between these two women and Shimamura is also unclear. . In other words, the entire novel lacks a reasonable story structure. When the
Chuangyuanshe version was released, the last part of the fire scene had not yet appeared, but since then, "Snow Country" has received high praise. Later, more and more people said they couldn't understand "Snow Country".Most importantly, readers born after the war do not understand the profession of geisha . Of course, I don't know any geishas. But they did not disappear, and they could still be seen in the area of , Gion , but there were unexpectedly few people who knew this profession among ordinary people. "Maiki" is very famous, but people think their job is to dance, and they don't know that after they grow into geisha, they often become lovers of politicians or entrepreneurs.
If you want to trace the root of the source, the problem of "Snow Country" has a deep connection. The story structure of the two women is similar to "Nikibashi" in Izumi Mitsuki ; if you trace it back further, you have to mention the human relationship book of the Tokugawa Shogunate period, and even the new version of the song and sacrificial text 》 represents Tokugawa late pornographic literature. In terms of type, the man who is "climbed" between two women must be a handsome man. This is true of "Nikibashi".
However, is Shimamura considered a handsome man in "Snow Country"? "Snow Country" has been adapted into a movie, brought to the stage or made into a TV series many times. The actors who play Shimamura in the movie include Ryo Ikebe and Kimura Kou , while the TV series include Masao Wakahara, Akira Yamauchi, Tamura Takahiro , Takashi Yamaguchi, Takao Kataoo (now known as Renzaemon) and Kaguchi Joshi , in the stage play, there are Nakamura Yoshiemon , Sugawara Kenji, Takao, Yamaguchi, Yamamoto Jue, Kondo Masao, Tanaka Ken, Saburo Shinata and Yuki Matsumura. It can be seen that most of this role is played by a handsome man. However, if you ignore these film and television works and read "Snow Country" without preconceived impressions, you will find that, in terms of Shimamura, what does he look like and whether he really has a woman's fate, except for him being an idle dance critic. Everything is unknown. Even after I had some relevant knowledge and learned about the actual experience of this work from Kawabata, and Komako also had its character prototype, I could not see any shadow of Kawabata from Shimamura.
"Snow Country" (1957) Stills
In the interpretation of "Snow Country", Kawabata himself was also unstable. At first, Kawabata wrote that he wrote Shimamura as a person who was more annoying than he in reality, but in fact, whether Shimamura is an annoying person or even whether he has a unified image makes People doubt it. Later, Kawabata, who realized this, said that he was closer to Komako than Shimamura. The critics disagreed with this and compared it with Flaubert, who claimed that "I am Emma Baufari". Kenyoshi Yamamoto used Noi as an example. He said that Komako was the protagonist and Shimamura was the supporting role. In the end, in his eyes, Kawabata was not even a supporting role, but a ghost.
Masa Tamura believes that "Snow Country" is not a novel, but avant-garde art. However, in form, it is impossible to deny that it is a novel, and it is difficult to regard it as a long prose poem such as Les Chants de Maldoror written by Comte de Lautréamont . Kobayashi Hideo said that Kawabata had never written a novel, which was too exaggerated. I think the most reasonable thing is probably the understanding of "atmosphere novel", that is, like "Spiritual Eating Insects" by Tanizaki Junichiro and "Hyperus Eating Insects" by Natsume Soseki , it can be left in the minds of readers. The kind of works with a beautiful atmosphere.
"Kamenyasuke Kawabata Collection: Library Version" (All Nine Volumes), Author: Kawabata Yasuke Kawabata, Translator: Ye Weiqu Tang Yuemei, Version: New Classic Culture·Nanhai Publishing Company February 2022
Let's confirm the facts
Since this book It's a biography, so let's confirm the facts. The date of Kawabata's arrival at Yuzawa Hot Spring and staying at Takaman Hotel was June 13, 1934 ( Showa ninth year), and the return home was around the 21st. The next stay is halfway high in early August. In other words, it was in summer, not in "Snow Country". The next time was December 6, when Kawabata was already planning to write the story that happened here. Kawabata first created "Mirror of Twilight" for the January issue of "Literary Spring and Autumn" magazine. When he was about to close the date of the manuscript, he hurriedly finished the manuscript and sent it out.Subsequently, he wrote "Mirror of Morning" for the "Remodeling" publication with a late deadline for submission. It also has no end to the beginning and the "morning" in the title is not reflected.
thirty-five volumes (two added volumes) In the 24th volume of this collection, there are works that were originally published in a magazine and later became the prototype of "Snow Country", as the "first draft" of "Snow Country". "常一个文" and "常个文 " created by Kawabata later both used the method of publishing several short stories first, and then connecting the short stories into long stories. "Snow Country" is different from the above example. When Chuangyuanshe published a single version, Kawabata completely revised it.
Some Western writers often make full concepts when creating novels, which is not easy for Japanese writers. This is because some Western writers such as Tolstoy and Proust were aristocratic and wealthy, and some, such as Stendhal and Merrime , hold important positions. Of course, there are also writers like Hefeng and Shiga who have rich assets and few works, and there are also writers in the West who work hard for income, such as Balzac , who write diligently for income, so it cannot be generalized. Takero Arishima not only has a wealthy family, but also has a good work. The current Murakami Haruki also shows the grand occasion of his works being popular all over the world. As for Kawabata, fundamentally speaking, he cannot write for a long time, and he cannot save money, so he needs to create for money, which is an exception.
"Mirror of Twilight" The following passage begins:
I touched her wet hair with my fingers. ——I remember the touch clearly than anything else. Shimamura recalled that living scene, and he wanted to tell the woman, so he took the train and started the journey.
Ye Zi is a fictional character, but on the train Kawabata saw a woman with a man lying in her arms, which should be a fact. Komako's name has never appeared before Kawabata finished writing the fourth "Futility". The name he used has always been "woman", and the name "Kumo" mostly comes from the association with "Bingwu". Kawabata's prototype "Koko" is a geisha whose stage name is "Matsuei". According to the interview with Misa Hoshino (1893-1983), Hirayama Misa (1893-1983), Kawabata is the second time, that is, 8 When I came to Yuzawa Hot Spring in the month, I met Matsuei after being introduced by Misa. Kawabata should have been attracted by her temperament. As written in the work, Song Rong is smart and clever, likes to read, and is a good woman. Kawabata himself did not mention in any article that the scene in the story was Echigo Yuzawa. In fact, the confirmation of this background is based on the postscript of Kawabata's complete works in 1949 (Showa 24th year), namely "One Shadow" 》. However, when "Snow Country" was adapted into a drama in 1937 (the twelfth year of Showa), someone had already conducted an investigation. Hanaki Akitaro who played Komako and Hiro Terazaki (1904-1980) went to Echigo Yuzawa to meet Matsu Honor.
The owner of Takaban Hotel is the descendant of Takahashi Hakusaemon, a prominent family in the village. At that time, his eldest son Masao had just transferred from Kyoto University to the Department of Literature of the University of Tokyo, and later inherited the family business of Hakusaemon. Shimazaki Fujimura and Kitahara Baiqiu and others often come here to live. The eldest son Masao is a teacher. The second son Aoheng goes to the fifth grade of middle school, and later graduated from Niigata High School and was promoted to Chiba Medical University. This is a complete intellectual. family. Therefore, when Kawabata checked in Takaman Hotel in August, he should have been very speculative with Masao. The time he wrote to Hideko in June, he was very anxious in his letters to Hideko, and the correspondence between him and Hideko in August was not made public. After Kawabata's death, Aoheng published an article "The Prototype Examination of the Snow Country". The article says that at the end of May 1937 (Showa 12), Kawabata discovered Akiyoshi sitting in the audience while giving a speech at Niigata High School. He suddenly said, "The person who understands the prototypes and writing process in my work is here." In front of me, this made me embarrassed. I felt that my work was no different from excrement.”
In 1956 (the 31st year of Showa), Yoshie Wada visited Yuzawa Hot Spring for the Tokyo News, and later, an interview with the serial "Asakura Women" serialized column "Agami Women" in March 1957 (the 32nd year of Showa) "In the first episode, I went to the interview and had a detailed understanding of Matsue's story. It is said that Yuheng, who told Wada about Matsue's existence: In 1942 (Showa 17), Yuheng, who was a student of Chiba Medical University, participated. The Fang General Literature Society organized by writer Hiroshi Ueda (1905-1966) and others. Hotan remembered that Youheng told him about Songei at that literary society, so he asked Youheng, who worked in a hospital in Tokyo at that time. Watan's The article says that Matsuei's real name is "Maruyama Kiku", and many people also write her name as "Igarashi Kazuko" - According to an interview with Yasuo Igarashi Kazuko, Igarashi Kazuko was when she was going to be her adopted daughter. The name of Maruyama Kiku was born on November 23, 1915 (the fourth year of Taisho), in Shimada, Niigata, and is the eldest daughter of the blacksmith shop. Her family has ten siblings, so she lives in poverty. In 1924 (the fourth year of Taisho) In the thirteenth year), kiri, who was 10 years old and in elementary school, was forced to drop out of school and was sent to a geisha family named "Titaka Family" in Nagaoka as an apprentice.
1931 (Showa Sixth year), Maruyama As a geisha, Kikumi started his troops from Wakamatsuya in Yuzawa, and the next month, the Kikumi Tunnel was opened. In 1934 (the 9th year of Showa), when he moved to "Toyotaya", he had grown into a geisha who could have an independent portal. In other words, She no longer owe debts. She is famous for her excellent dance skills but never staying overnight, and she will not sleep with guests. I have seen photos of her at that time, including photos of her skiing. Her eyebrows are thick and very neat. She is a Beauty. When Kawabata mentioned this, Kawabata wrote that when Hanao said she wanted to see Matsuei, "I said he would be disappointed and asked him to give up... He really returned home disappointed" ("Writer Interview"). I met I'm afraid this passage will be unhappy. Why did Kawabata write this way?
novels are everywhere that write characters to this level. However, because Kawabata is the Nobel Prize winner, Ito Jungyo and Komako will be particularly impressed by people. After careful study, it even reached an abnormal level. However, the prototype of " Sleeping Beauty " is still unknown.
In 1968, Yasunari Kawabata received the Nobel Prize in Literature.
According to what Sayuo Sawano who went to see Matsue later, in 1935 (In January of Showa Ten), someone told Song Rong that "the novels published in magazines are very similar to talking about you." So she immediately bought two magazines, "Literary Spring and Autumn" and "Renovation", and read them red, which made her red-eared. She was shy and restless. Later, Kiku married a lame young man named Kusato Kojima, who was younger than her, and died on January 13, 1999 at the age of 85. Kawabata won the Nobel Prize in Literature and him After committing suicide, Ju Du was interviewed by magazines such as Women's Weekly.
There are a lot of obscure words in "Mirror of Morning", but there are also scenes I mentioned earlier that say "You said let's be good friends" but the bodies have already overlapped. It is said that Kawabata once wrote to Matsuei and apologized for his unauthorized use of Matsuei as the prototype of the novel without his consent, but he did not receive a reply. In fact, Kawabata went to Takaban Hotel again and called Matsuei. From September 30, 1935 (Showa Ten), Kawabata published "Story" and "Futility" in "Japan Review" in less than a month. "Japan Review" is a magazine of the Japanese Review Agency. It was renamed from "Economic Exchanges" in October 1935 (the 10th year of Showa). Kobayashi Hideo serialized "On Private Novels" in the magazine. In July 1936 (the 11th year of Showa), Kawabata went to the top half of the year again, and this time seemed to be the last time.
1957 (the 32nd year of Showa), during the filming of the "Snow Country" film starring Kishi Keiko (1932-), Kawabata also went to Yuzawa, the location of the outdoor shooting. At that time, Kishi Meiko saw Kishi, but Kawabata came to see her without seeing her. Some people also said that the two met at Sanjo's cafe after that. In 1959 (the 34th year of Showa), Kawabata published an essay "The Journey to the Snow Country", which included a diary when he lived in Takaban Hotel in October 1935 (the 10th year of Showa), with the words "Ko.(Note: The story of Komako coming to the hotel)" and other texts. " Komako" is the name in the novel. The original "song" was changed to " Koma" in the diary, which is very vivid.
In summary, when "The Mirror of Twilight" is "The Mirror of Twilight" is After the publication of works such as "" and "Matsuei's face turned red, and then Kawabata came again to create the subsequent part. Kawabata's room is called "Kamama", and it is still preserved. Wada's work says that Matsuei's husband Kojima It was mentioned that the novels are written with real dialogues, probably almost the same. Kawabata often says that even if there are prototypes in reality and borrow their life scenes, the book says All the stories written are fabricated. However, his publication of a diary with words such as "Just" is equivalent to announcing that it is a true story. This comes from the writer's instinct: what he writes is a fact, but it makes people feel that It's fiction, which makes him feel uncomfortable.
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Does he love her?
cannot read "Snow Country" as a love novel, because what Kawabata wrote is not a love novel. But, despite what he said It is the relationship between geisha and customers. If you remove the veil of Kawabata's writing skills and read the dialogue, you will find that it is a romance novel. Here is the entanglement of readers: Did Shimamura fall in love with Komako, and Komako is also Have you fallen in love with Shimamura? Is there "love" even between Kawabata and Matsuei? Is love still there even if the short relationship between a customer and a geisha? The novel makes people involuntarily have these questions. This is The way Kawabata is written.
I don’t think Kawabata is a man who makes women fall in love with him, so "Snow Country" seems to have some fiction. However, as far as the character Matsuei is concerned, it doesn’t seem like this. First of all, When did Kawabata start calling a geisha after going to the hot spring? Kawabata, who was once innocent, didn't know how to play with women at all, and even fell into the pain of unrequited love for the waitress of a restaurant. Twelve years have passed since that era, he After getting married, I became tired of family life, so I called a geisha. Kawabata was obsessed with a miserable life, a geisha with books and knowledge. Did Matsuei fall in love with Kawabata? Can I be written into a diary and a novel? The woman in the plot will probably be at a loss when she sees a famous writer in her early thirties. So, the two of them said, "Let's be good friends", but their bodies are trapped in love between men and women. . This should have happened in August, not June.
Kiki said to Sawano, "I'm sorry, my wife." In fact, after Kawabata published works such as "Mirror of the Morning", the one who was most hit at this time is probably Hideko . When Kawabata stayed in Takaman Hotel in the autumn of the following year, he called Hideko in the last few days. The two of them played together in the Tosuoya Hot Spring in Niigata Prefecture, and Shifang Hot Spring in Gunma Prefecture, etc. for three days before returning. Home in Tokyo. At this time, "Story" has been published in "Japanese Review". It should be noted that Kawabata wrote in the first and this time to Hideko that "I want to go home as soon as possible", here I have the intention to end my work as soon as possible, and I also have the intention of hiding my intimate relationship with Komako, tricking Hideko and making her feel at ease.
"Snow Country" does not describe the difficulties of Komako Jiju, who was written into the novel. "Why are you here?" This should be the line from Kawabata when Kiku got angry during Takamaki during the second year. Shimamura said to her, "You are a good woman." Komako got angry after hearing this. The scenes caused by misunderstandings are a bit incredible, making people feel the subtle relationship between adult men and women. In the movie version, Kishi Meiko ignored Shimamura's words, and then she came to Shimamura to blame him for what it means. Iwashita Shima (1941-) asked more directly: "You come once a year, are I a woman who comes to call me?" In other words, I was written into the novel and accepted Kawabata's Kiku, thinking that I was I got angry after hearing that. However, "good woman" has other meanings.
Shunji Chiba quoted a longer text in his article "The Snow Country" to reflect how good Komako is at love: "Does this man really understand me? Did he come from afar for this matter? Did he not forget me because he could not find a woman like me everywhere? "This passage was deleted when the single book was published and replaced by the sentence "You are a good woman." There is also a place in the first draft of "River of Heaven": "You said I am a good woman, right? Please tell me, why did you say that? Bastard."
Chiba then extended the topic to what he once translated The theme of immortals in the Tang Dynasty novels in Chinese. "Snow Country" originally reminds people of the story of Taoyuan Township in works such as "Peach Blossom Land", and even the story structure of "Youxian Cave" which originally belonged to Chinese literature but is now only preserved in Japan. I think this is a strong hint here. It was a reason why Kawabata was attracted by Matsuei.
It is said that Ju had a lover named Joo Fengzuo at that time. Toyosaku had no intention of getting married, so he enlisted in the army in 1937 (the 12th year of Showa), while Kiku was raised by a man in his 60s living in Tokyo. Matsuei, who is famous for not spending nights outside, finally broke the example because of his reputation as a writer Kawabata and his longing for the city. So, what did Kawabata think? Have he ever thought about marrying Songrong? I guess they have talked about this. However, it was a road with no end. If you read the work "Snow Country" with this understanding, you should be able to fully understand why Komako was angry, and Shimamura is not a ghost anymore. This way of expression is adopted in the films starring Kishi Keiko and the dramas brought to the stage. Many readers should have understood this way when the work was first published.
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Can you see the novelist's face?
Kawabata was not satisfied with "Fire in the Snow" and "River of the Sky", so he modified it and turned it into "Snow Country Copy". "Snow Country" borrows the "North Vietnam Snow Book" created by Matsuyuki Suzuki, a person from the late Tokugawa period. Iwahara Library published "North Vietnam Snow Book" in January 1936 (Showa Eleventh). Kawabata said that he read the work after the publication of the old version of "Snow Country" and put it in "Fire in the Snow" .
Kawabata himself wrote that the way his works were published caused confusion to both the publishing house and readers. Even so, in the 1960s and 1970s, he seemed to plan to continue writing. After his death, he left behind an actually revised mysterious draft titled "Snow Country Copy". "The Voice of the Mountain" was also published in the middle with "Thousand Cranes", and it was even more excessive. We can appreciate his arrogant confidence in the words Kawabata said when talking about his publication style - even such a publication style is still called a famous work.
"Snow Country" rejects people regard it as a private novel in this way. Its creative skills make people feel that reading it as a private novel is too vulgar. It is not surprising how people delve into this novel as if they were private novels, but in fact, the delve into it is limited to the archetype of the characters, which can be regarded as "Yasuzu Kawabata's supernatural power" (Gentianji Temple ) One of the abilities in .
Tayama Flower Bag has a travel notes "Nobuna in the Snow", which records the scene when I went to Shinshu to visit Shinsai Fujimura in 1904. There are the following sections: There are as many as
tunnels, as there are twenty-six. Oh, it's pitch black. The light and shadow of the headlights illuminate the human figures, and their appearance and appearance are just like the underworld. Ahh, isn't this the doorway to the Snow Heavenly Kingdom?
As soon as you go out, the mountains are bright, the fields are bright, the houses are bright, and people are bright. Sure enough, this is the heaven of snow!
The beginning of "Snow Country" is a rewrite of this paragraph. Kawabata quoted this passage in the article "Hohido Teacher" and disclosed the secret. This travel notes are included in the 1914 "Grass Pillow·Horse Pose".
Let’s put aside the topic of “Snow Country” for the time being.It is said that Hideo Kobayashi once asked Kawabata who wrote literary and artistic reviews: "Can you see the writer's face when you write a monthly review?" Kawabata didn't know what it meant and replied "I can't see it." Kobayashi then said, "Is that true? If you can see it, you will be over." Although this sentence can be understood as "Once you can see the face, the pen will become dull", when this sentence comes from When Kobayashi's mouth in "The Writer's Face", it's hard to say. However, if Kobayashi takes this sentence seriously, it will be fooled.
"Snow Country" (2022) Stills
Author | Otani Nodun Zhao Zhongming (translated)
Introduction | Li Xiaen
Edit | Zhang Jin Li Yang
Proofreading | Zhang Yanjun
