“Look out there!” The train began to move almost before the words were finished, the sound of the engine working, coming in measured rhythm at first, gradually gaining in speed. One by one the car windows passed us and Kyuichi-san’s face grew smaller and smaller. The last third class car rolled before us, and just at that moment another head appeared out of its window.
The unshaven face of the “tramp” peered out from under a worn-out brown soft hat, casting a sad lingering look. The eyes of Nami-san and of the deserted one met unintentionally. The train was moving out in earnest. The face at the window disappeared instantly. Nami-san stood abstractedly, gazing after the departing train. Strangely enough, in that abstracted look of hers, I saw that missing “compassion and pity” visibly outstanding, that I had never seen before.
“That is the stuff! You’ve got it. With that coming, it will make a picture.”
I said this in a low voice as I patted Nami-san on her back. That moment I completed the plan of my picture.
NOTES.
| ([1]) | Noh is a peculiarly Japanese stage performance of ancient origin, from which sprang the latter-day theatrical plays. It is presented on its own stage to the enjoyment of those who love to see human actions reduced to dreamy gracefulness, beautiful curves, and melodious sweetness. |
| ([2]) | Basho Matsuo was the founder of his own school of Hokku and one of the most famous poets Japan has produced. He was a seer in his way. Born in 1644, he died in 1694. |
| ([3]) | Hokku, also called Haiku, is an ode consisting of only 17 Japanese kana syllables, and makes a point of compressing into a couple of lines an impression made by the outside world, thoughts aroused by an event, sentiments felt and all else that affects human heart. In fact, everything that carries poetical sentiments and is uttered in poetical tune within 17 syllables makes a hokku. It may be a mere whim, an instantaneous impression, or else a very deep thought; but a good hokku is always rich in colour and profound in idea, which it leaves unsaid but only hints, and at least arouses a train of fancies in the reader. |
| ([4]) | Danna-sama is a term originally adopted from Sanscrit Dana, meaning “exhibition of charity” and is used in addressing a man of position. Stands for English Sir, Master, or Your Honour; but nearer French Monsieur. Less formally it takes the form of Danna-san or simply Danna. |
| ([5]) | A small yellowish-green warbler, that sings with a peculiarly sweet note, generally but wrongly identified with the English nightingale. The uguisu never sings at night, as does the English bird, except as a caged captive under a paper cover, with a light burning near. |
| ([6]) | Means an old woman or a grandmother with an honorific O; Bah-san is less formal. |
| ([7]) | Inen was a disciple of Basho and a passionate lover of nature in her quietude. |
| ([8]) | A rustic air sung by a mago or packhorse driver and the like, always arousing pastoral associations of peace and care-freeness. |
| ([9]) | Oba means aunt and san a honorific affix less formal than sama. Oba-san is used in its broadest sense as is aunt. |
| ([10]) | Aki is the name of a woman; in this case that of the old woman’s married daughter. O and san are respectively an honorific prefix and affix. |
| ([11]) | Jo is daughter with the honorific sama, which becomes san less formally. |
| ([12]) | “Wise that the bride went horseback after cherry season.” This haiku was probably suggested by an old ditty: “Why tie a horse to a blossoming cherry tree? The flowers will scatter if spirited the horse becomes.” |
| ([13]) | Same as O-Bah-san, only less polite. See ([6]). |
| ([14]) | Obi is a lined belt, made of fabric of various texture used over the kimono, going two or three times round the waist. The Japanese woman’s obi is often made of very beautiful material, and is about eight-tenths of a foot in width and thirteen feet or so in length, so that it is a ponderous affair to wear round the waist. |
| ([15]) | The semi-transparent paper screen, sliding in grooves and serving the purposes of light-admitting doors in Japanese houses. |
| ([16]) | Same as shoji, only mounted with wall-paper like stuff and therefore heavier. It also moves in grooves and takes the place of a door in Japanese houses. |
| ([17]) | A shoji is often put in windows in Japanese houses. |
| ([18]) | In Japan it is considered nothing extraordinary or improper for hotel maids or others of the sex, waiting on a guest, to help him to put on a kimono. |
| ([19]) | The three stringed Japanese guitar, often called “Sangen” nowadays. |
| ([20]) | Generally means a Buddhist priest, implying respect. Osho-san is a less formal form. |
| ([21]) | Zen is the name of a Buddhist sect, credited with rising above worldly trammels. |
| ([22]) | Same as karakami. |
| ([23]) | A term of widest application. Scholars, teachers, savants men of profession or of speciality are all Sensei. |
| ([24]) | Same as Danna-sama, only less polite. See ([4]). |
| ([25]) | A round-head Buddhist priest, often pronounced “bonze” by Westerners. |
| ([26]) | Buddhist priests from the youngest to the oldest keep their head clean shaved all over. |
| ([27]) | Same as karakami. See ([16]). |
| ([a]) | “The crazy thing, it shakes dew-drops off the aronia?” A blossoming aronia wet in rain is often sung as a beauty in ablution. Crazy must therefore be any one who shakes dew drop off an aronia in bloom. |
| ([b]) | “Shadow of a flower; shadow of a woman; both so misty!” An instantaneous picture of woman standing by a blossoming tree in the dim moonlight. |
| ([c]) | “The Reynard in woman’s guise, the moon so misty.” The fox is often spoken of as “Shoichii,” which is the title of the Inari god, who is always associated with the animal. The fancy here is that the moon being so soft and dim that it will give the cunning animal an opportunity to assume a human figure, and the woman may be a fox in disguise. |
| ([d]) | “A garland she makes of the midnight stars of Spring.” |
| ([e]) | “It is Beauty loosening and bathing her hair in the clouds of a Spring night.” |
| ([f]) | “Spring’s night this, how fair the singing one.” |
| ([g]) | “Spirit of aronia lured out even the moon-lit night.” |
| ([h]) | “Song rises and falls, with Spring sauntering under the moon.” |
| ([i]) | “How so alone, when fullest Spring is ripening!” |
| ([j]) | “Dews on aronia fly; ’tis morning raven.” |
| ([jk]) | “Shadowy the shadow of flower and the shadow of woman.” |
| ([k]) | “Shadow of flower doubled the shadow of woman.” |
| ([l]) | “It is lordling in woman’s guise in misty moonlight.” |
| ([m]) | “Even like the dew drop That when autumn comes, Lodges trembling on grass So must I roll off to die.” |
| ([n]) | “Hark, the packhorse bells in the Spring breeze, Even as they jingled in Inen’s ear.” |
| ([o]) | “List, mago-uta, grey hair undyed Spring is going again.” |
| ([p]) | “Wise that the bride went After the flower season on horse back.” |
| ([q]) | “Even as the gate of heaven opens In the Spring breeze, fair one! Show what is in your heart.” |
A BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OF THE AUTHOR.
“Soseki” Natsume was born in Ushigome, on January 5, 1867. After graduating from Tokyo Imperial University, he taught in the Middle Schools of Matsuyama and Kumamoto. Later he was appointed a professor of Kumamoto No. 5 High School. In 1900 he was ordered to England by the Department of Education to prosecute his studies. On coming home in 1903 he was given a chair of Literature In Tokyo Imperial University.
He resigned his university post in 1907 and immediately accepted a position in the Tokyo Asahi Shimbun newspaper. From about 1909, he began to ail from ulceration of the stomach, and the subsequent seven years he spent in hospital and going to spas for a change of air, until the disease carried him in 1916, he having never recovered fully from its attack. He was in his fiftieth year when he died.
| Chronology of Soseki’s works: | ||
|---|---|---|
| Name | Year | |
| Miscellaneous: | ||
| London Shosoku | (London Letters) | 1901 |
| London Toh | (The Tower of London) | 1905 |
| Eijitsu Shohin | (Long Day Miscellany) | 1909 |
| Critical Essays: | ||
| Bungaku-ron | (Literature, an essay) | 1907 |
| Bungaku Hyoron | (Literary Criticisms) | 1909 |
| Asahi | (Reprints from the Asahi) | 1911 |
| Bunten-to Geijutsu | (Art and The Department of Education Exhibition of Art) | 1912 |
| Novels: | ||
| Wagahaiwa Neko-de Aru | (I Am A Cat) | 1909–1906 |
| Botschan | (Botchan) | 1906 |
| Nowaki | (A Blast Of Fall Wind) | 1907 |
| Gubijinso | (The Corn-poppy) | 1907 |
| Sanshiro | (Sanshiro) | 1908 |
| Sorekara | (Next) | 1909 |
| Mon | (The Gate) | 1910 |
| Higan-sugi Made | (Until After the Equinox) | 1912 |
| Kokoro | (The Heart) | 1914 |
| Mei-An | (Light and Shade) not finished | 1915 |