A Snowy Night's Tale

Yuki no yo no Hanashi (A Snowy Night's Tale) Author(s): Dazai Osamu Source: Monumenta Nipponica, Vol. 22, No. 1/2 (1967), pp. 211-215 Published by: Sophia University Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2383232 . Accessed: 12/10/2011 17:12 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

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FTRANSLATION

Trui

no

yo

no

hanashi

A SNOWY NIGHT'S TALE BY DAZAI

OSAMU

Translatedby T. E. SWANN T[

EHATday the snowhadfallensincemorning.SinceI hadfinishedthe mompel

which I had startedpreviouslyfor my niece,Otsuruchan,I calledat the house of my auntin Nakanoto deliverthem on the way homefromschoolthat day.I then receiveda coupleof driedcuttlefishfromthemas a present.It was alreadydark when I arrivedat KichijojiStation.The snow had piled up over a foot deep and it continuedto fall silently. SinceI was wearingboots I felt ratherbold, and walked alongpurposefullypickingout placeswherethe snow was piled deeply. Comingup to the mailboxnear the house, I noticed that the newspaper-wrapped cuttlefishI hadheldundermy armwere missing.Though I ama modelof aneasy-goingperson, nevertheless,I rarelydrop things. Yet that night, probablybecauseof my excited rompingin the driftedsnow, I haddroppedthem. I was crestfallen.I was disgusted at losing the cuttlefish and embarrassedby my petty reaction,but, still, I had intendedto give them to my sister-in-law.Next summermy sister-in-lawwill have a baby. They say one is very hungrywhile carryinga baby. She must eat a double amountof food for the baby in her stomach.Becausemy sister-in-law,in contrast to me, is refinedand carefulabout her appearance,she took such light meals that they seemedlike "canary'sfare."Although she never once ate between meals, of late she would say it was embarrassingto be hungry. She said that she would suddenly start wanting to eat odd things. I had not forgotten that my sister-in-law, while cleaningup afterthe evening mealwith me recently, frettedandsighed in a smallvoice, "Oh, my mouth is bitter.I wish I had a cuttlefishor somethingelse to suck on." Therefore,having chancedto receivea coupleof cuttlefishfrommy aunt 4RTHE TRANSLATOR received his Master's degree I

in Japanese Language and Literature from the University of Michigan and is now engaged in

independentstudy and researchin Japan. I A type of baggy trouserswornby women.

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in Nakanothat day, I happilybrought them along to give them to her secretly. But now I had droppedthem. I was crestfallen. As you may know, there are three people in my family-my older brother,my sister-in-law,and me. Moreover,my brotheris a slightly eccentricnovelist, and although he is alreadynearingforty, he is not at all famous.And he is always in financialstraits.Whetherasleepor awakehe will say that his health is bad-only his mannerof speakingis healthy. He grumblesnoisily at us for this and that. Furthermore,becausehe will not help at all in familymatters,except formeregriping, my sister-in-lawhas to do the physicalwork of a man.I feel very sorryfor her. One day I becameindignantandsaidto him, "Pleasetakeyourrucksackoncein a while and go and buy vegetables. Other husbandsgenerallyseem to do this." He got very madandsaid,"Idiot!I am not so vulgara manas that. Listen,Kimiko(my sister-in-law'sname), you bear this in mind too: Even if our householdbegins to starveto death,I will nevergo out forsuchshamefulfoodhunting.Understandthat! That is my last bit of pride." Indeed,his resolutionwas fine. However,I do not know at all whethermy elder brotherthought of our country'scauseand thereinhated the food-huntingparties, or merely hated food-huntingbecauseof his own laziness.Both my mother and fatherwere Tokyo people, but my fatherhad servedfora long time in the government officeof Yamagatain T6hoku. My brotherandI were bornin Yamagataand our fatherdied in Yamagata.My brotherwas about twenty then and I was still only a baby ridingon my mother'sback.The threeof us returnedto Tokyo again, anda few yearsago Motherdied. Ourfamilywas now composedof my brother,his wife, andme. Sincewe had no relativeswe did not receiveany foodshippedin from the country,aspeoplein otherhomesdid. Also,becausemy brotherwasaneccentric person, and becausehe did not associateat all with other people, there were absolutely no unusualor unexpectedgifts. When I realizedwhat joy it would have causedif I hadonly given the two cuttlefishto my sister-in-law,the two cuttlefish becamepreciousto me, even though they were suchpetty things. So I about-faced and slowly walkedalong, searchingthe snowy roadI had been over. But therewas no bope of finding them. Not only would it have been very hardto see the white newspaperwrapperon the white snowy road,but the snow was piling up continually. I went back almostas far as KichijojiStation, but I didn't find so much as a rock.WhenI shiftedmy gripon my umbrellawith a sighandlookedup at the dark night sky, the snow dancedfuriouslylike a million fireflies.Beautiful,I thought. Branchesthat seemedheavy and coveredwith snow hung down fromthe trees on both sides of the road.Now and then they weaklywriggled aroundas if they were

TRANSLATION.

SWANN, A SnowyNight'sTaleby DazaiOsamu

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sighing. Feeling, so to speak, as if I were in a fairy-taleworld, I forgot about the cuttlefish.Suddenly,a brightideaoccurredto me. I would takesomeof this beautiful snow sceneryto my sister-in-law.It would certainlybe a much better present than cuttlefish.To be obsessedwith foodis vulgar.Actually,it is disgraceful. My brotheronce taughtme that humaneyes canstoreup scenery.Ifyou stareat a light bulb for a little while and then close your eyes, the light bulb will appear vividly behindyour eyelids. That was adequateproof.In connectionwith this, my brotherhad told mea short,romanticstoryset in ancientDenmark,-but my brother's storiesare never more than wild tales. Although they are completely unreliiable,still I thought the storyhe told that timewas a pretty goodone even thoughit was a tissue of my brother'slies. This was his story: "Longago, a certaindoctorin Denmarkperformedan autopsyon the corpseof a young sailorwho hadbeenshipwrecked.Examiningthe sailor'seyes undera microscope,he discoveredabeautifulsceneof ahappyfamilytranscribedon his retina.The doctorreportedthis to a friendof hiswho was a novelist,andthe novelistimmediately gave the followingexplanationof this strangephenomenon.The young sailor, engulfed in the raging billows that had shipwreckedhim, struck out for shore. Finally,he managedto cling desperatelyto a window frameof a lighthouse.When he lookedin thewindowas he was aboutto callout forhelp, the lighthousekeeper's familywasjust about to begin their modest,cheerfulevening meal.Ah, that won't do, he thought. As he realizedthat the family'shappinesswouldbe ruinedif he now screamedfor help, a big wave suddenly struck again. At the same moment the strengthfailedin his fingertipsas he clung to the window frame.The sailor'sbody was carriedout to sea. Surelythis sailorwas the most kind and noblepersonin the world. Such was the novelist's explanation.The doctor gave his assent to this interpretation,and the story has it that the two of them reverently buried the sailor'scorpse." I wantedto believethis story. Even thoughit was a story that couldnot be scientific, I still wanted to believe it. Having suddenlyrecalledthis story in the snowy night, I transcribedthe beautifulsnow sceneryin the bottom of my eyes and returnedhome. I thought I would say somethinglike, "Nesan,pleasepeek into my eyes and the baby you arecarryingwill becomebeautiful."The other day my sister-in-lawhad laughinglyaskedmy brother,"Pleasepaste a pictureof a handsomepersonon the wall of my room. I will look at it every day and no doubt beara beautifulchild." My brothernodded gravely, "Hmm, prenatalinfluence?That is important."He was kind enough to stick two photographsside by side on the wall-a photograph

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of a charmingnoh maskcalled"Magojiro"and a photographof a tiny noh mask called"Yukino Ko-omote".But afterthat he also stuck a pictureof his own sullen face right between the photographsof the two noh masks, so that they came to nothing. Evenmy meeksister-in-lawwas no longerableto toleratehis pictureandbegged, "It is my earnestrequestthat you take down your picture.WhenI look at it I get upset."Finally,she got him to takeit down. But, if she hadcontinuedto gazeat his picture,thereis no doubtthat the babywouldhavebeenbornwith a facelike that of a young monkey. My brotherhas that sort of an odd face.Even so, I wonderif he doesn't think he was ratherhandsomeas a child. He is a shockingperson.Actually, my sister-in-lawsaidshe believedthat she wantedto lookonly at the most beautiful things in the world now, for the sakeof the baby she carried.Undoubtedly,transcribingthis snow sceneryin the bottom of my eyes would bring my sister-in-law infinitelymorejoy when I showedit to her than a presentof such a thing as cuttlefish. Giving up the cuttlefish for lost, I stared at the beautiful,surroundingsnowscene as much as possibleon the way home. I arrivedhome with the feeling that I carriedthe beautiful,pure white scenerynot only in the bottom of my eyes but even in the bottom of my heart. "Nesan, look into my eyes. At the bottom of my eyes some very beautifulsnow sceneryis transcribedin full." "What?What do you mean?"Laughing,my sister-in-lawstood up and put her handson my shoulders,"Whaton earthhappenedto your eyes?" "Well, didn't my brotheronce teach us that the sceneryone has just seen will remainat the bottom of a person'seyes without fadingaway?" "I had forgottenyour brother'sstories.They are mostly lies." "Well, that one story is true. I want to believe that one, so please look into my eyes. When I was coming homejust now, I saw a whole lot of very beautifulsnow scenery.Look into my eyes.You will surely have a beautifulbaby with skin like snow." My sister-in-lawmadea facethat seemedsad and was silently gazingat my face. Then, "Hey,"-my brothercameout of the adjoiningroom."The effectwould be a hundredtimesbetterif you lookedinto miyeyes ratherthanlookinginto Shunko's worthlesseyes." "Why? Why?" I despisedmy brotherenough to want to hit him. "When she looks into your eyes she says she gets sick." "That can't be true. My eyes saw beautiful snow scenery for twenty years.

TRANSLATION. SWANN, A SnowyNight'sTaleby DazaiOsamu

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I was in Yamagatauntil I was about twenty. Shunko,you see, had alreadycome to Tokyo beforeshe was ableto discriminatethings andshe doesn'tknow the splendid snow sceneryofYamagata.So she makesa fussaboutseeingthispitifulTokyo snow scenery.Sincemy eyes have seen so muchsnow scenerythat they havebecomesick of it, they arebetter than Shunko'seyes-no matterwhat you say." I felt like crying to makehim regretthat. Then my sister-in-lawcameto my aid. She smiledand quietly said,"Well,his eyes have seen dirty things as often as they have seen snow scenery,haven't they?" "True, True. There arefarmorenegative scenesthan positive ones, so they are yellow and muddy." "You are talkingout of your conceit!"My brothergot madand went backinto the adjoiningroom.