Town of Cats - Hagiwara Sakutarō (transl. by Jeffrey Angles)
This is a neat-and the only prose-story by the poet Hagiwara Sakutarō, written in 1935. If you like this, I would highly recommend exploring his main body of work. I've included a sample below, relevant to my life and perhaps yours as well.
I wish you all luck in finding the other side of the painting, by whichever means you get there.
English translation by Jeffrey Angles originally published in "Modanizumu: Modernist Fiction from Japan, 1913-1938" (2008).
Image is "Cat Crossing to Eat" by the incomparable Hiroshige.
"The Reason the Person Inside Looks like a Deformed Invalid"
by Hagiwara Sakutarō
I am standing in the shadow of a lace curtain,
that is the reason my face looks vague.
I am holding a telescope in my hands,
I am looking through it far into the distance,
I am looking at the woods,
where dogs and lambs made of nickel and children with bald heads are walking,
those are the reasons my eyes look somewhat smoked over.
I ate too much of the plate of cabbage this morning,
and besides this windowglass is very shoddily made,
that is the reason my face looks so excessively distorted.
To tell you the truth,
I am healthy, perhaps too healthy,
and yet, why are you staring at me, there?
Why smiling so eerie a smile?
Oh, of course, as for the part of my body below the waist,
if you are saying that area isn’t clear,
that’s a somewhat foolish question,
of course, that is, close to this pale window wall,
I am standing inside the house.
Пікірлер: 15
I remember that Ligotti recommended this story. I was never able to track it down. Great story and narration. Thank you!
@TheeLandstander
3 жыл бұрын
That's neat. I didn't know Ligotti had talked about it anywhere. Glad I could provide it for you! I was turned onto it through Murakami, who alludes to it in his novel "1Q84," then I was able to read it in the collection "The Weird" edited by Jeff and Anne VanderMeer.
Thanks for this, you have a pleasant voice to listen to. I listened to this story while riding my bicycle
Thanks for uploading. Good voice, good story, good translation, good sound recording. Enjoyed it very much.
Thank you for this! ❤️
Fantastic! Thank you greatly!
Loved the story and your narration Thanks
I just wanted to share a link to an absolutely gorgeous woodblock portrait of the the author. It was done by Kōshirō Onchi in 1943. I probably would have used this for the video if I'd seen it at the time. upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/df/%27Portrait_of_Hagiwara_Sakutar%C3%B4%27%2C_woodblock_print_by_Onchi_K%C3%B4shir%C3%B4%2C_1943%2C_1st_edition%2C_National_Museum_of_Modern_Art%2C_Tokyo.jpg
Such a curious use of direction, or perhaps, misdirection, similar to Arthur Machen. Beautiful. Also, this must without doubt have influenced Miyazaki's works
I suggest "Seven American Nights" by Gene Wolfe.
I clicked because of title 😻
I appreciate the upload；can use for my classes；but you should give credit to the translator in the description too, for he did a brilliant job
@TheeLandstander
6 жыл бұрын
Indeed I should. Thank you for pointing out that oversight. I'm flattered that you can find a use for this in your classes. May I ask what you teach?
@professorrshaldjianmorriso1474
6 жыл бұрын
modern japanese literature, this story included (see my twitter for details: swarthyface )；I happen to be teaching this story next week.
Not going lie I kind of hate this story. I listened to it about 4 times and I still don't really get the point of it