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Blue Bamboo: Japanese Tales of Fantasy
Blue Bamboo is a collection of seven short stories by one of Japan's preeminent postwar writers and prose stylists, Osamu Dazai. Not the typical romantic fantasies so often seen in Japanese writing, filled with water sprites and vengeful ghosts, these stories are a mixture of fantastic allegory, slightly skewed fables, and affecting romantic tales. Revealing the wide range of Dazai's imaginative powers, they also give a glimpse of his humane and idealistic side.
From the title story, about an impoverished, henpecked scholar who is transformed by the love of a voluptuous bird, to "The Chrysanthemum Spirit," about a passionate gardener who meets a brother and sister with extraordinary powers, Dazai creates a world of fantasy and romance that is infused with his own psychological concerns. Many readers may recall the poignancy of Oscar Wilde's The Happy Prince or Han Christian Andersen.
The collection is capped by two delightful stories-within-a-story, in which the assorted members of a quirky family compose alternate episodes of a slightly gothic romance with hints of Poe and Saki (in "On Love and Beauty") and a wildly elaborate retelling of Rapunzel that is engaging, horrifying, and touching by turns (in "Lanterns of Romance").
All in all, these warm, inventive, and life-affirming stories will strike a deep, satisfying chord in many readers.
From the title story, about an impoverished, henpecked scholar who is transformed by the love of a voluptuous bird, to "The Chrysanthemum Spirit," about a passionate gardener who meets a brother and sister with extraordinary powers, Dazai creates a world of fantasy and romance that is infused with his own psychological concerns. Many readers may recall the poignancy of Oscar Wilde's The Happy Prince or Han Christian Andersen.
The collection is capped by two delightful stories-within-a-story, in which the assorted members of a quirky family compose alternate episodes of a slightly gothic romance with hints of Poe and Saki (in "On Love and Beauty") and a wildly elaborate retelling of Rapunzel that is engaging, horrifying, and touching by turns (in "Lanterns of Romance").
All in all, these warm, inventive, and life-affirming stories will strike a deep, satisfying chord in many readers.
184 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1993
376 people are currently reading
9096 people want to read
About the author
Osamu Dazai
1,114 books9,370 followersOsamu DAZAI (native name: 太宰治, real name Shūji Tsushima) was a Japanese author who is considered one of the foremost fiction writers of 20th-century Japan. A number of his most popular works, such as Shayō (The Setting Sun) and Ningen Shikkaku (No Longer Human), are considered modern-day classics in Japan.
With a semi-autobiographical style and transparency into his personal life, Dazai’s stories have intrigued the minds of many readers. His books also bring about awareness to a number of important topics such as human nature, mental illness, social relationships, and postwar Japan.
With a semi-autobiographical style and transparency into his personal life, Dazai’s stories have intrigued the minds of many readers. His books also bring about awareness to a number of important topics such as human nature, mental illness, social relationships, and postwar Japan.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 318 reviews
July 29, 2022
What a Christmas gift for me. Reading a book that gave me such pleasure….! 😊
A Goodreads friend gave it 5 stars and I put it on my TBR list. I was nearing the bottom of my pile of books I had gotten from the local library and for some reason did not have high hopes for this book…gladly my intuition was off-base. Even the Introduction by the translator was good. Wow. I started off with that and then read the first story, a ‘stories-within-a-story’ and it was off to the races. I just could not believe my good luck. Here are the 7 stories and my ratings and a comment here and there…
• On Love and Beauty—4.5 stars—story of a professor of mathematics who is divorced and remarried but really is not. He’s remarried, actually, to his divorced wife in a photograph, in which she is 10 years younger. This stories-within-a-story was concocted by a “quirky” family composed of the youngest son who bored everybody else to tears and who goes first, an elder daughter who takes pity on the youngest son and rescues the story, a second son (middle son) who is full of himself and cackles, a younger daughter who also thinks highly of herself but knows how to tell a good story, and the oldest son who is well-meaning but takes himself too seriously. They tell this story because “…It was customary in this household for the brothers and sisters to relieve bouts of boredom by taking turns spinning out a collective story.” Sounds like fun if you ask me! 🧐
• Cherry Leaves and the Whistler—4.5 stars—a young woman is dying of renal tuberculosis, although she does not know that…she does know she is quite ill. She has never had a boyfriend, and she writes letters in her dying days to herself, addressed to her by her “lover” (she does not have one). Sad but very good.
• The Chrysanthemum Spirit—5 stars—Poor man who grows mums meets another man who grows mums…other man grows better mums…has a sister…at end the other man turns into a ghost spirit mum. Sister was also a spirit mum, but remains a woman. With a synopsis like that, you will have to read the story yourself because you cannot understand a word I just said.
• The Mermaid and the Samurai—3 stars—At beginning of story a courageous and noble samurai is on a boat with other passengers and the boat is suddenly in a storm and it appears they are all going to die. I was laughing when reading this…how absurd what some of the people did in their final moments as they were aware they were going to die (in point of fact the samurai saves them and they do not drown:
o “…another grabbed his gourd of saké, and guzzled down every last drop, saying that death was one thing but he couldn’t bear the thought of letting good wine go to waste, then dangling before the others the empty gourd, no larger than his hand, and solemnly declaring that, besides, it would make an excellent floatation device…and yet another whiled away the moments before an almost certain death by trying to start an argument, claiming that someone had touched his knee.” 😄
• Blue Bamboo—2.5 stars—this story had an interesting “moral” to it: that a man whose life really sucked became a crow and very much preferred his life as a crow to that of being a human, but he was told that the gods would be angry if he had a choice between remaining a crow for life or turning back into a human and choosing to remain a crow, because the greatest gift of the gods given to us is to attain the status of a human even if one’s life is crap. I don’t know about that…sounds good in theory and in a story I guess. 😐
• Romanesque—2 stars—embedded in this story are three separate tales, and they don’t seem to go anywhere. The translator in the Introduction, Ralph F. McCarthy agrees and says this: Dazai “often described it as his ‘debut work’ and always seemed to be quite fond of it, although some readers may be inclined to agree with this comment from an essay he wrote in 1938, ‘The Final years”: “Romanesque,” for example, is full of comical absurdities, but it’s a bit out of control, so I can’t really recommend it all that highly.”
• Lanterns of Romance—5 stars—This actually brings back the five brothers and sisters from the first short story in this collection, and once again they live up to the task of telling another stories-within-a-story (even if, or because, the younger sister eats 20 chocolates and 10 hard candies for fuel before she writes down her thread of the story), this time a variation of Rapunzel, the fairy tale from Hans Christian Anderson.
It all adds up to 3.8 but my overall degree of enthusiasm is 5 stars…. 😊
Notes:
This author only lived to be 38, he died in a double suicide shortly before his 39th birthday. Here is a brief biography: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osamu_D...
Reviews:
• https://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/...
• http://tonysreadinglist.blogspot.com/...
• https://thescientificdetective.wordpr...
A Goodreads friend gave it 5 stars and I put it on my TBR list. I was nearing the bottom of my pile of books I had gotten from the local library and for some reason did not have high hopes for this book…gladly my intuition was off-base. Even the Introduction by the translator was good. Wow. I started off with that and then read the first story, a ‘stories-within-a-story’ and it was off to the races. I just could not believe my good luck. Here are the 7 stories and my ratings and a comment here and there…
• On Love and Beauty—4.5 stars—story of a professor of mathematics who is divorced and remarried but really is not. He’s remarried, actually, to his divorced wife in a photograph, in which she is 10 years younger. This stories-within-a-story was concocted by a “quirky” family composed of the youngest son who bored everybody else to tears and who goes first, an elder daughter who takes pity on the youngest son and rescues the story, a second son (middle son) who is full of himself and cackles, a younger daughter who also thinks highly of herself but knows how to tell a good story, and the oldest son who is well-meaning but takes himself too seriously. They tell this story because “…It was customary in this household for the brothers and sisters to relieve bouts of boredom by taking turns spinning out a collective story.” Sounds like fun if you ask me! 🧐
• Cherry Leaves and the Whistler—4.5 stars—a young woman is dying of renal tuberculosis, although she does not know that…she does know she is quite ill. She has never had a boyfriend, and she writes letters in her dying days to herself, addressed to her by her “lover” (she does not have one). Sad but very good.
• The Chrysanthemum Spirit—5 stars—Poor man who grows mums meets another man who grows mums…other man grows better mums…has a sister…at end the other man turns into a ghost spirit mum. Sister was also a spirit mum, but remains a woman. With a synopsis like that, you will have to read the story yourself because you cannot understand a word I just said.
• The Mermaid and the Samurai—3 stars—At beginning of story a courageous and noble samurai is on a boat with other passengers and the boat is suddenly in a storm and it appears they are all going to die. I was laughing when reading this…how absurd what some of the people did in their final moments as they were aware they were going to die (in point of fact the samurai saves them and they do not drown:
o “…another grabbed his gourd of saké, and guzzled down every last drop, saying that death was one thing but he couldn’t bear the thought of letting good wine go to waste, then dangling before the others the empty gourd, no larger than his hand, and solemnly declaring that, besides, it would make an excellent floatation device…and yet another whiled away the moments before an almost certain death by trying to start an argument, claiming that someone had touched his knee.” 😄
• Blue Bamboo—2.5 stars—this story had an interesting “moral” to it: that a man whose life really sucked became a crow and very much preferred his life as a crow to that of being a human, but he was told that the gods would be angry if he had a choice between remaining a crow for life or turning back into a human and choosing to remain a crow, because the greatest gift of the gods given to us is to attain the status of a human even if one’s life is crap. I don’t know about that…sounds good in theory and in a story I guess. 😐
• Romanesque—2 stars—embedded in this story are three separate tales, and they don’t seem to go anywhere. The translator in the Introduction, Ralph F. McCarthy agrees and says this: Dazai “often described it as his ‘debut work’ and always seemed to be quite fond of it, although some readers may be inclined to agree with this comment from an essay he wrote in 1938, ‘The Final years”: “Romanesque,” for example, is full of comical absurdities, but it’s a bit out of control, so I can’t really recommend it all that highly.”
• Lanterns of Romance—5 stars—This actually brings back the five brothers and sisters from the first short story in this collection, and once again they live up to the task of telling another stories-within-a-story (even if, or because, the younger sister eats 20 chocolates and 10 hard candies for fuel before she writes down her thread of the story), this time a variation of Rapunzel, the fairy tale from Hans Christian Anderson.
It all adds up to 3.8 but my overall degree of enthusiasm is 5 stars…. 😊
Notes:
This author only lived to be 38, he died in a double suicide shortly before his 39th birthday. Here is a brief biography: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osamu_D...
Reviews:
• https://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/...
• http://tonysreadinglist.blogspot.com/...
• https://thescientificdetective.wordpr...
May 21, 2016
picture a family, perfect in their imperfection. 2 girls, 3 boys, a mother, a grandmother, a grandfather... rendered with care, subtlety, and nuance by an author enchanted by this family. yet not so starry-eyed that he can't poke at their insecurities and vanities as well - playful pokes from a loving hand. the siblings play a game: one starts a story and the others continue it in their turn. what began as an adaptation of Rapunzel turns into something stranger and deeper and darker and lighter, depending on the sibling. we read this story as we read about the family Irie; both stories are a delight. I have rarely read such a charming yet spiky portrait of a family, one that had me smiling from beginning to end, and no sloppy sentimentality either. a real family. this is the last tale in the book, and it has joined my personal list of favorites. 5 stars for the story! it made me very happy. its name: "Lanterns of Romance"
the preceding stories didn't hold the same appeal for me. some are adaptations of Japanese folktales, a couple are more prosaic in nature (including another story about the family Irie). they were pleasant, occasionally cruel, but they didn't stick me in the heart - in the best sort of way - like that last tale. the translation at times uses American colloquialisms, which made me cringe a bit. still, the afterglow of the last, longest story lingers enough where I can look on the whole collection as something special.
the preceding stories didn't hold the same appeal for me. some are adaptations of Japanese folktales, a couple are more prosaic in nature (including another story about the family Irie). they were pleasant, occasionally cruel, but they didn't stick me in the heart - in the best sort of way - like that last tale. the translation at times uses American colloquialisms, which made me cringe a bit. still, the afterglow of the last, longest story lingers enough where I can look on the whole collection as something special.
December 12, 2024
کتاب در باب عشق و زیبایی اولین کتابی هست که از دازای میخونم و برخلاف جریان عمومی نخواستم اولین اثر از دازای رو با No Longer Human شروع کنم. احتمالا کتاب بعدی هم صبح خاکستری خواهد بود.
این کتاب از دو داستان کوتاه تشکیل شده که کاملا مرتبط بههم هستند. داستان خانوادهای که اعضای آن سرگرمی جالبی دارند تا از رخوت و ملال فرار کنند. سرگرمی اعضای این خانواده این هستش که داستانسرایی میکنن و هر کدوم از اعضا بخشی از داستان رو مینویسه و روایت میکنه.
نمادهای زیادی در قالب شخصیتهای داستان وجود داره و زبان طنز دازای برای من جالب بود.
ترجمه کتاب هم ترجمه روان و خوبی بود.
امتیاز من بهاین داستان: ۲.۵ از ۵
پ.ن
دازای تو همین کتاب از زبون شخصیتها یهداستان جدید دیگه برای راپونزل خلق کرده بود.😂
"آدمهای ارجمند هم همیشه در معرض فلاکت و بدبختی هستند؛ این قانون استثنا ندارد."
"آوازهای غمگین رهایی قلبهای مالامال از اندوه هستند."
"اینطور زنان که فقط با غرایزشان زندگی میکنند و نمیدانند چطور خود را بهدست سرنوشت بسپارند، همواره محرک اصلی تراژدیها هستند."
این کتاب از دو داستان کوتاه تشکیل شده که کاملا مرتبط بههم هستند. داستان خانوادهای که اعضای آن سرگرمی جالبی دارند تا از رخوت و ملال فرار کنند. سرگرمی اعضای این خانواده این هستش که داستانسرایی میکنن و هر کدوم از اعضا بخشی از داستان رو مینویسه و روایت میکنه.
نمادهای زیادی در قالب شخصیتهای داستان وجود داره و زبان طنز دازای برای من جالب بود.
ترجمه کتاب هم ترجمه روان و خوبی بود.
امتیاز من بهاین داستان: ۲.۵ از ۵
پ.ن
دازای تو همین کتاب از زبون شخصیتها یهداستان جدید دیگه برای راپونزل خلق کرده بود.😂
"آدمهای ارجمند هم همیشه در معرض فلاکت و بدبختی هستند؛ این قانون استثنا ندارد."
"آوازهای غمگین رهایی قلبهای مالامال از اندوه هستند."
"اینطور زنان که فقط با غرایزشان زندگی میکنند و نمیدانند چطور خود را بهدست سرنوشت بسپارند، همواره محرک اصلی تراژدیها هستند."
May 8, 2016
I confess that I purchased this book on a whim. I was fascinated by the title and when I read the book review:
A glimpse into the humorous, sardonic world of Dazai Osamu, presenting a new and very different look at a one of the recognized masters of Japanese, and indeed global, literature. These works from the middle years of his brief career show a skilled hand, with angst muted and his penchant for subtle comedy deftly displayed.
Well I was indeed smitten.
I’ve never heard of this author before but I was following my gut feeling and knew that this book was for me.
This work comprises seven short stories:
On Love and Beauty
The Chrysanthemum Spirit
The Mermaid and the Samurai
Blue Bamboo
Alt Heidelberg
Romanesque
Lanterns of Romance
Well I thought that the first story was so pedestrian that I nearly abandoned the book. My disappointment really upset me. I kept on telling myself that I was tired, I had worked for many hours on a rather tedious medical document and perhaps my brain was fuzzy. So the next morning, full of optimism, with the sun shining majestically above and a fabulous view of the Pyrenees, I started again on the first story. Oh no, not for me and sadly commenced the second, expecting a repeat of the first story, The Chrysanthemum Spirit which was sheer beauty. Basically it’s the story of an old man, and a young couple and all have a love of Chrysanthemums. I felt choked after I read this – it was so touching and poignant.
And onto The Mermaid and the Samurai.
Oh my, the writing was sheer bliss as was the content. This is all about a samurai named Chudo Konnai, a man of great courage and unquestionable integrity, who served as administrator of the coastal areas. Well one day, he’s on a boat and sees a mermaid. Well I won’t go into this but remarkable things happen and the ending is sublime. I loved it!
Reading became even better with Blue Bamboo (the best in the book) and it quite overwhelmed me. All I can say is that I now view crows very differently!
As for Alt Heidelberg., well never borrow money is the maxim here, mixed in with the joy of youth, too much saké and beer. An excellent story.
Romanesque is a story about “Taro the Wizard”. Read it! But then we encounter “Jirobei, the Fighter”. Now this is an individual on a mission. He wants to fight but unfortunately never gets the opportunity to do so. It is really amusing to see how he thinks that he’s finally going to fight someone and then gets thwarted. I loved it! As for “Saburo, a Liar.” Well that’s indeed an interesting concept.
And the final story, Lanterns of Romance is a sequel to the first story On Love and Beauty. Definitely not for me.
As for rating this, well all I can say is that it’s just excellent. I’m ignoring the first and last stories as they just happened to be there!
A glimpse into the humorous, sardonic world of Dazai Osamu, presenting a new and very different look at a one of the recognized masters of Japanese, and indeed global, literature. These works from the middle years of his brief career show a skilled hand, with angst muted and his penchant for subtle comedy deftly displayed.
Well I was indeed smitten.
I’ve never heard of this author before but I was following my gut feeling and knew that this book was for me.
This work comprises seven short stories:
On Love and Beauty
The Chrysanthemum Spirit
The Mermaid and the Samurai
Blue Bamboo
Alt Heidelberg
Romanesque
Lanterns of Romance
Well I thought that the first story was so pedestrian that I nearly abandoned the book. My disappointment really upset me. I kept on telling myself that I was tired, I had worked for many hours on a rather tedious medical document and perhaps my brain was fuzzy. So the next morning, full of optimism, with the sun shining majestically above and a fabulous view of the Pyrenees, I started again on the first story. Oh no, not for me and sadly commenced the second, expecting a repeat of the first story, The Chrysanthemum Spirit which was sheer beauty. Basically it’s the story of an old man, and a young couple and all have a love of Chrysanthemums. I felt choked after I read this – it was so touching and poignant.
And onto The Mermaid and the Samurai.
Oh my, the writing was sheer bliss as was the content. This is all about a samurai named Chudo Konnai, a man of great courage and unquestionable integrity, who served as administrator of the coastal areas. Well one day, he’s on a boat and sees a mermaid. Well I won’t go into this but remarkable things happen and the ending is sublime. I loved it!
Reading became even better with Blue Bamboo (the best in the book) and it quite overwhelmed me. All I can say is that I now view crows very differently!
As for Alt Heidelberg., well never borrow money is the maxim here, mixed in with the joy of youth, too much saké and beer. An excellent story.
Romanesque is a story about “Taro the Wizard”. Read it! But then we encounter “Jirobei, the Fighter”. Now this is an individual on a mission. He wants to fight but unfortunately never gets the opportunity to do so. It is really amusing to see how he thinks that he’s finally going to fight someone and then gets thwarted. I loved it! As for “Saburo, a Liar.” Well that’s indeed an interesting concept.
And the final story, Lanterns of Romance is a sequel to the first story On Love and Beauty. Definitely not for me.
As for rating this, well all I can say is that it’s just excellent. I’m ignoring the first and last stories as they just happened to be there!
March 6, 2017
I don't think it would be such a terrible sin for a twentieth-century author to make use of his unruly daydreams and impressions to fashion a tale based essentially on one of these old stories and present it to the reader as an original work. There is a lot of talk these days about a "new order", but my own personal new order would appear to be nothing more nor less than the exhumation of romanticism.
Osamu Dazai
For the more or less hidden romantic in each of us who was raised on a diet of fairytales and chivalrous pursuits, the gloomy Osamu Dazai offers a charming selection of modern retellings of traditional Japanese stories, side by side with contemporary sketches. This is my first foray into the opus of this conflicted personality who, like many other Japanese writers, commited suicide at the height of his popularity. The tales included here are anything but gloomy: for their humour and subversive connotations they reminded me of Italo Calvino and Angela Carter, but they are first of all a product of a Japan searching for its soul between tradition and industrialization. They are also mostly hopeful and sentimental, with the obligatory weird elements that I have come to expect from this country. I liked them for the youthful embrace of romanticism and for the homage paid to authors that were dear to Dazai : Victor Hugo, Hans Christian Andersen, the Brothers Grimm, Henryk Ibsen and their equivalent storytellers and folklore collectors from ancient Japan and China.
An author's affection doesn't always correspond to his objective judgement, and I sometimes find myself stealthily spreading that treacly collection of stories out on my desk and rereading them. Of all the tales in the collection, the most frivolous, and the one that the author loves most dearly, is the very one I refer to here, the one inspired by those five brothers and sisters...
Who are these people and what are they doing in this collection? Let's find out:
On Love and Beauty
There were five brothers and sisters, and all of them loved romances.
A modern family in Tokyo spends most of its leisure time reading books, but on weekends they gather together and invent sequential stories to drive boredom away. One of the five starts a story and then each of the other four siblings picks up the thread in his or her turn and lets the imagination run freely. The personality of each of the five brothers and sisters affects the style and the content of the narrative, but the one constant is the sentimentality that links the disparate ideas into something more than the sum of its parts.
- eldest son: 28, a lawyer, arrogant and standoffish, 'but this was only a forbidding mask to disguise his own vulnerability', loves samurai movies, never tells a lie;
- elder daughter: 25, unwed, warm and gregarious by nature, she made friends easily but always ends up abandoned, 'secretly she took pleasure in the heartache and melancholia such rejections afforded her', budding feminist;
- second son: 23, a snob, a miser, a critic, a fan of Goethe;
- younger daughter: 21, pretty but a narcissist, her favorite author is Izumi Kyoka
- youngest son, 17, highschooler, awkward and earnest
Ah, the sadness of
having become a grownup,
mature in every way,
and being the only one
who knows it.
The game is started by the youngest son, trying to sound grownup and sophisticated, and hilariously going on a tangent about the latest subject he studied in math class. The others come to his rescue and slowly weave together the romance of an elderly professor walking alone in the rain and thinking about his estranged wife.
Never before in the professor's life has he purchased flowers. He's not quite himself today. The radio, the fortune, the ex-wife, the handkerchief - a lot has transpired.
The Chrisanthemum Spirit
From a traditional source, the story of a poor gardener who travels all through Japan to find the best seeds for his chrisanthemum garden. On the road he meets a brother and a sister with supernatural talents who eventually join him and build a rival garden. The story continues the themes of beauty, sadness, love, tradition and emancipation.
The Mermaid and the Samurai
Another tale with supernatural elements, based on an old text and enhanced by the author with a gentle rebuke of the popular yet cheap samurai movies that were all the rage in early Japanese cinema.
To a true samurai, trust is everything. He who will not believe without seeing is a pitiful excuse for a man. Without trust, how can one know what is real and what is not? Indeed, one may see and yet not believe - is this not the same as never seeing? Is not everything, then, no more than an imaterial dream? The recognition of any reality begins with trust. And the source of all trust is love for one's fellow man.
Blue Bamboo
Once upon a time, in a certain district in Hunan, there lived an impoverished scholar named Yu Jung. Poverty and scholarship have always gone hand in hand, it seems, and one can't help but wonder why that might be.
A charming fairytale based on a Chinese folk tale about a gentle man henpecked by an ugly wife. Yu Jung is saved from despair and suicide by some supernatural crows he meets on his journeys. I am not entirely sure if it is Confucianism or Buddhism, but the story promotes ideas of acceptance and endurance and kharma.
Inscrutable are the ways of heaven. Bestir yourself and leap back into the fray. In our seventy years of life, no one knows what might occur. Every ebb has its flow. The heart of man is as changeable as the storm-tossed waves of Lake Tung-t'ing.
Alt Heidelberg
Is the cuckoo in this nest of traditional, supernatural stories. It is an autobiographical piece, a love song to a wasted youth and to the lost innocence and exuberance of that particular period of life.
It was eight years ago. An Imperial University student exceptional only for my laziness, I spent the summer that year at Mishima, on the old Tokaido Road. [...] Mishima is a place I'll never forget. The impact that summer had on my life was such that it would scarcely be an exaggeration to say that all the work I've done since has been the result of what I learned there.
The narrator, an aspiring writer, goes to visit a friend in the old town by the sea, spends his days drinking and swaping tall tales with strangers. Alas, time flies - a blink of an eye and the festival is over! When he returns years later with a wife and inlaws to show them the wonders of the town, all he finds are dust and ashes:
I couldn't find a trace of the old atmosphere anywhere. But perhaps it wasn't that Mishima's colors had faded but simply that my own heart had grown old and withered. That carefree Imperial University student has since had eight solid years of trial and tribulation. I've aged a good two decades in those eight years.
Romanescque
This is apparently the earliest written piece in the collection, and it is a celebration of storytelling in three parts - each a character portrait and a warning about the mysterious ways of kharma.
Taro the Wizard is a smart but lazy kid in a small village. He learns magic from old books and saves the villagers from several natural disasters, but when he tries to cast a spell of beauty of himself, hoping to catch the eye of a local girl, Taro ends up in a totally different position than expected.
Jirobei the Fighter is the second son of a wealthy merchant, a drunkard and a wastrel (some autobiographical notes here, also) . He wants to win the respect of his neighbours, so he starts to train obsesivelly in martial arts. Jirobei gets so big and strong that nobody wants to fight with him, so he cannot demonstrate his skills. The one time he throws a punch in jest, it ends in disaster.
Saburo the Liar is another kid from a wealthy family, son a a holy man. Saburo tries to get away from under the shadow of his father's success, but his methods are unorthodox, mostly cheating and envious lashing at luckier kids. Yet the talent for lying turns Saburo into a succesful author when his tall tales prove popular with other students and with the general public.
By lying to others, and to himself, he fervently tried to obliterate his crime from reality and from his own heart, and thus, in the course of growing up, he became a walking, talking mass of prevarication.
A coda of the overall story has the three characters meeting in a tavern and deciding to make the best of their hard luck. The theme of the artist as a professional liar will be reiterated in the last story of the collection.
Lanterns of Romance marks a circular journey back to the five siblings we met in the opening story. They are engaged here in another game of sequential storytelling, but with some added input from grandparents and parents. The author even places himself in the background of the action:
I loved that family. I cannot pretend that my description of their household conforms precisely to facts, however. To put it in such overblown terms causes me more than a little embarrassment, but my account included certain elements that fell short of Goethe's ideals of "poetry and truth." There are even a few colossal lies mixed in.
Once again, the youngest son is claiming the right to start the procedures, but his ambition is not the equal of his skills. How can a young boy deal with writer's block?
His heart pounding, he leafed through various books from his shelf - a copy of Grimm's Fairy Tales, a volume of stories by Hans Christian Andersen, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, and so on. Stealing a little bit from here, a little bit from there, he somehow managed to throw something together.
All stories have been told a thousand times already, so why not have some fun with Rapunzel? The youngest son mixes in a few alien elements, but who's complaining?
Dinner consisted of frogs grilled on skewers; the skin of a pit viper stuffed with the fingers of small children; a salad of death cups, wet mouse noses, and the innards of green caterpillars; swamp-scum liqueur; and a citric acid wine, fresh from the grave it was brewed in. This was all topped off with a confection of rusty nails and fragments of church-window glass.
The elder sister makes an effort to strike a more original note: The real story always begins where the love story ends. , so she explores what happens with the prince and Rapunzel after the happy ending. The days of wine and roses are slightly incompatible with the modern worldview:
We are born to spend most of our days in the midst of bland, bleak reality.
The second son and the second daughter do their best, but their own personality shortcomings serve mostly to muddle the waters. The eldest son is not much help either:
The eldest son had always been too serious, and his powers of imagination were as a consequence severely underdeveloped. It would seem that the more irresponsible and crafty one is, the more likely one is to have a talent for storytelling.
Grandfather to the rescue! The old rogue who still likes to visit the geisha houses at eighty puts the cherry on the cake: Any connoisseur knows you've got to be drunk to really enjoy a good romance.
In other words, most of the stories we read are an attempt to escape from a grim reality. But what else can we do? Suicide, like Dazai did a few years later, is not a valid solution for me. I would rather have romance.
>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<
I lied myself just now. The epilogue is not an invitation to get drunk and party while the world burns. Grandfather gives the symbolic medal for storytelling to his daughter-in-law and tells her not to give up, to continue to tell stories:
Promise you'll always take good care of these fine grandchildren of mine.
>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<
I am strongly persuaded to read more from Osamu Dazai, but I am a little shy of finding out his other books are more bleak, less hopeful than this one.
Osamu Dazai
For the more or less hidden romantic in each of us who was raised on a diet of fairytales and chivalrous pursuits, the gloomy Osamu Dazai offers a charming selection of modern retellings of traditional Japanese stories, side by side with contemporary sketches. This is my first foray into the opus of this conflicted personality who, like many other Japanese writers, commited suicide at the height of his popularity. The tales included here are anything but gloomy: for their humour and subversive connotations they reminded me of Italo Calvino and Angela Carter, but they are first of all a product of a Japan searching for its soul between tradition and industrialization. They are also mostly hopeful and sentimental, with the obligatory weird elements that I have come to expect from this country. I liked them for the youthful embrace of romanticism and for the homage paid to authors that were dear to Dazai : Victor Hugo, Hans Christian Andersen, the Brothers Grimm, Henryk Ibsen and their equivalent storytellers and folklore collectors from ancient Japan and China.
An author's affection doesn't always correspond to his objective judgement, and I sometimes find myself stealthily spreading that treacly collection of stories out on my desk and rereading them. Of all the tales in the collection, the most frivolous, and the one that the author loves most dearly, is the very one I refer to here, the one inspired by those five brothers and sisters...
Who are these people and what are they doing in this collection? Let's find out:
On Love and Beauty
There were five brothers and sisters, and all of them loved romances.
A modern family in Tokyo spends most of its leisure time reading books, but on weekends they gather together and invent sequential stories to drive boredom away. One of the five starts a story and then each of the other four siblings picks up the thread in his or her turn and lets the imagination run freely. The personality of each of the five brothers and sisters affects the style and the content of the narrative, but the one constant is the sentimentality that links the disparate ideas into something more than the sum of its parts.
- eldest son: 28, a lawyer, arrogant and standoffish, 'but this was only a forbidding mask to disguise his own vulnerability', loves samurai movies, never tells a lie;
- elder daughter: 25, unwed, warm and gregarious by nature, she made friends easily but always ends up abandoned, 'secretly she took pleasure in the heartache and melancholia such rejections afforded her', budding feminist;
- second son: 23, a snob, a miser, a critic, a fan of Goethe;
- younger daughter: 21, pretty but a narcissist, her favorite author is Izumi Kyoka
- youngest son, 17, highschooler, awkward and earnest
Ah, the sadness of
having become a grownup,
mature in every way,
and being the only one
who knows it.
The game is started by the youngest son, trying to sound grownup and sophisticated, and hilariously going on a tangent about the latest subject he studied in math class. The others come to his rescue and slowly weave together the romance of an elderly professor walking alone in the rain and thinking about his estranged wife.
Never before in the professor's life has he purchased flowers. He's not quite himself today. The radio, the fortune, the ex-wife, the handkerchief - a lot has transpired.
The Chrisanthemum Spirit
From a traditional source, the story of a poor gardener who travels all through Japan to find the best seeds for his chrisanthemum garden. On the road he meets a brother and a sister with supernatural talents who eventually join him and build a rival garden. The story continues the themes of beauty, sadness, love, tradition and emancipation.
The Mermaid and the Samurai
Another tale with supernatural elements, based on an old text and enhanced by the author with a gentle rebuke of the popular yet cheap samurai movies that were all the rage in early Japanese cinema.
To a true samurai, trust is everything. He who will not believe without seeing is a pitiful excuse for a man. Without trust, how can one know what is real and what is not? Indeed, one may see and yet not believe - is this not the same as never seeing? Is not everything, then, no more than an imaterial dream? The recognition of any reality begins with trust. And the source of all trust is love for one's fellow man.
Blue Bamboo
Once upon a time, in a certain district in Hunan, there lived an impoverished scholar named Yu Jung. Poverty and scholarship have always gone hand in hand, it seems, and one can't help but wonder why that might be.
A charming fairytale based on a Chinese folk tale about a gentle man henpecked by an ugly wife. Yu Jung is saved from despair and suicide by some supernatural crows he meets on his journeys. I am not entirely sure if it is Confucianism or Buddhism, but the story promotes ideas of acceptance and endurance and kharma.
Inscrutable are the ways of heaven. Bestir yourself and leap back into the fray. In our seventy years of life, no one knows what might occur. Every ebb has its flow. The heart of man is as changeable as the storm-tossed waves of Lake Tung-t'ing.
Alt Heidelberg
Is the cuckoo in this nest of traditional, supernatural stories. It is an autobiographical piece, a love song to a wasted youth and to the lost innocence and exuberance of that particular period of life.
It was eight years ago. An Imperial University student exceptional only for my laziness, I spent the summer that year at Mishima, on the old Tokaido Road. [...] Mishima is a place I'll never forget. The impact that summer had on my life was such that it would scarcely be an exaggeration to say that all the work I've done since has been the result of what I learned there.
The narrator, an aspiring writer, goes to visit a friend in the old town by the sea, spends his days drinking and swaping tall tales with strangers. Alas, time flies - a blink of an eye and the festival is over! When he returns years later with a wife and inlaws to show them the wonders of the town, all he finds are dust and ashes:
I couldn't find a trace of the old atmosphere anywhere. But perhaps it wasn't that Mishima's colors had faded but simply that my own heart had grown old and withered. That carefree Imperial University student has since had eight solid years of trial and tribulation. I've aged a good two decades in those eight years.
Romanescque
This is apparently the earliest written piece in the collection, and it is a celebration of storytelling in three parts - each a character portrait and a warning about the mysterious ways of kharma.
Taro the Wizard is a smart but lazy kid in a small village. He learns magic from old books and saves the villagers from several natural disasters, but when he tries to cast a spell of beauty of himself, hoping to catch the eye of a local girl, Taro ends up in a totally different position than expected.
Jirobei the Fighter is the second son of a wealthy merchant, a drunkard and a wastrel (some autobiographical notes here, also) . He wants to win the respect of his neighbours, so he starts to train obsesivelly in martial arts. Jirobei gets so big and strong that nobody wants to fight with him, so he cannot demonstrate his skills. The one time he throws a punch in jest, it ends in disaster.
Saburo the Liar is another kid from a wealthy family, son a a holy man. Saburo tries to get away from under the shadow of his father's success, but his methods are unorthodox, mostly cheating and envious lashing at luckier kids. Yet the talent for lying turns Saburo into a succesful author when his tall tales prove popular with other students and with the general public.
By lying to others, and to himself, he fervently tried to obliterate his crime from reality and from his own heart, and thus, in the course of growing up, he became a walking, talking mass of prevarication.
A coda of the overall story has the three characters meeting in a tavern and deciding to make the best of their hard luck. The theme of the artist as a professional liar will be reiterated in the last story of the collection.
Lanterns of Romance marks a circular journey back to the five siblings we met in the opening story. They are engaged here in another game of sequential storytelling, but with some added input from grandparents and parents. The author even places himself in the background of the action:
I loved that family. I cannot pretend that my description of their household conforms precisely to facts, however. To put it in such overblown terms causes me more than a little embarrassment, but my account included certain elements that fell short of Goethe's ideals of "poetry and truth." There are even a few colossal lies mixed in.
Once again, the youngest son is claiming the right to start the procedures, but his ambition is not the equal of his skills. How can a young boy deal with writer's block?
His heart pounding, he leafed through various books from his shelf - a copy of Grimm's Fairy Tales, a volume of stories by Hans Christian Andersen, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, and so on. Stealing a little bit from here, a little bit from there, he somehow managed to throw something together.
All stories have been told a thousand times already, so why not have some fun with Rapunzel? The youngest son mixes in a few alien elements, but who's complaining?
Dinner consisted of frogs grilled on skewers; the skin of a pit viper stuffed with the fingers of small children; a salad of death cups, wet mouse noses, and the innards of green caterpillars; swamp-scum liqueur; and a citric acid wine, fresh from the grave it was brewed in. This was all topped off with a confection of rusty nails and fragments of church-window glass.
The elder sister makes an effort to strike a more original note: The real story always begins where the love story ends. , so she explores what happens with the prince and Rapunzel after the happy ending. The days of wine and roses are slightly incompatible with the modern worldview:
We are born to spend most of our days in the midst of bland, bleak reality.
The second son and the second daughter do their best, but their own personality shortcomings serve mostly to muddle the waters. The eldest son is not much help either:
The eldest son had always been too serious, and his powers of imagination were as a consequence severely underdeveloped. It would seem that the more irresponsible and crafty one is, the more likely one is to have a talent for storytelling.
Grandfather to the rescue! The old rogue who still likes to visit the geisha houses at eighty puts the cherry on the cake: Any connoisseur knows you've got to be drunk to really enjoy a good romance.
In other words, most of the stories we read are an attempt to escape from a grim reality. But what else can we do? Suicide, like Dazai did a few years later, is not a valid solution for me. I would rather have romance.
>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<
I lied myself just now. The epilogue is not an invitation to get drunk and party while the world burns. Grandfather gives the symbolic medal for storytelling to his daughter-in-law and tells her not to give up, to continue to tell stories:
Promise you'll always take good care of these fine grandchildren of mine.
>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<
I am strongly persuaded to read more from Osamu Dazai, but I am a little shy of finding out his other books are more bleak, less hopeful than this one.
November 22, 2025
این کتاب متشکل از دو داستان هست.
در مورد عشق و افسانه هاست و اینکه متفاوت تر از بقیهی کتابهای دازای هست،خوش بین تر است.
در مورد عشق و افسانه هاست و اینکه متفاوت تر از بقیهی کتابهای دازای هست،خوش بین تر است.
April 26, 2019
Translator's Introduction
--On Love and Beauty
--The Chrysanthemum Spirit
--The Mermaid and the Samurai
--Blue Bamboo
--Alt Heidelberg
--Romanesque
--Lanterns of Romance
--On Love and Beauty
--The Chrysanthemum Spirit
--The Mermaid and the Samurai
--Blue Bamboo
--Alt Heidelberg
--Romanesque
--Lanterns of Romance
Read
February 17, 2022Okumayı zorlaştıran bazı dilbilgisi hataları olmasa harika idi. Bu dizi için ithaki yayınlarına teşekkürü bir borç bilirim.
October 30, 2024
Japon halk öyküleri ve mitolojik unsurlarını da içeren öykülerden oluşan dikkate değer bir kitap.
Dazai’nin öyküleri romanlarından daha farklı, daha aydınlık. Aslında hem romanlarında, hem öykülerinde insanlık hallerini anlamaya ve anlatmaya çalışıyor ama öykülerinde -buruk olsa da- mutluluk da var. Tüm eserlerinde, yaşamından parçalar olduğunu anlayabiliyoruz.
Bu kitabında yer alan iki öykü, sanki taslak halinde olan bir öykünün, en etkilisine karar verilemeyen versiyonlarını içeriyor. Birkaç öyküyü çok beğenmesem de genel olarak beğendim.
Kitapta yer alan öyküler; Yeşil Bambu, Aşk ve Güzellik Hakkında, Hazakura ve Sihirli Islık, Onurlu Yoksulluk Hikayesi, Denizkızı Denizi, Romanesk ve Romantizm Feneri.
Dazai’nin öyküleri romanlarından daha farklı, daha aydınlık. Aslında hem romanlarında, hem öykülerinde insanlık hallerini anlamaya ve anlatmaya çalışıyor ama öykülerinde -buruk olsa da- mutluluk da var. Tüm eserlerinde, yaşamından parçalar olduğunu anlayabiliyoruz.
Bu kitabında yer alan iki öykü, sanki taslak halinde olan bir öykünün, en etkilisine karar verilemeyen versiyonlarını içeriyor. Birkaç öyküyü çok beğenmesem de genel olarak beğendim.
Kitapta yer alan öyküler; Yeşil Bambu, Aşk ve Güzellik Hakkında, Hazakura ve Sihirli Islık, Onurlu Yoksulluk Hikayesi, Denizkızı Denizi, Romanesk ve Romantizm Feneri.
June 22, 2020
My first experience with Osamu Dazai's works was a successful one. The narrative was somehow a combination of fairy tale realm, teacher's perspective and novel's lyricism. The story was well crafted and somehow it had an element of surprise in the end, even though it was a simple tale (referring to Blue Bamboo). Overall, it was nice and enjoyable.
January 4, 2022
Dazainin üslubuna düşenler olmuş, dedim olabilir. Onlar bide diğer eserlerini okusunlar görsünler kalem neymiş nasıl kullanılırmış. 2022’ye bi’ girişimiz oldu. Bi’ tık asabi, hadi hayırlısı. 🔥
May 4, 2011
I wish that I could hand a teenaged Mariel a copy of Osamu Dazai's Blue Bamboo: Japanese Tales of Fantasy. I would now say, "You were here for me." I'm unsure where the nostalgic feelings are coming from, not knowing what is Dazai and what is his own growing (up or down?). Maybe the believing suspension would be as an atmosphere like a starry sky over the fairy tales, to have grown up with the original Japanese fairy tales, instead of Dazai's exercises alone in standing. My two favorite stories, On Love and Beauty and Lanterns of Romance have the under the same moon many miles away quality for the foriegn fairy tale feeling of things that have been there for me in my life: J.D. Salinger's Glass family and Rapunzel. I am not twisted smiling over why I felt the strange outside quality of make believe outside the every day life. I've been doing this my whole life. This I know. Making up stories about other stories. This smile feels like an expression I could have made other days in my life. "I missed you!" If only every story was like that.
Maybe I'm all wrong about the time thing. I missed the family of five siblings and a mother when they appeared again at the last. The grandparents were omitted until then. I agree with Dazai that that was a mistake. He knew a family like them. I don't know which is him, and which is them. I guess I don't need to know which of the Japanese fairy tales was Dazai... but I'd like to have the under the same sky feeling, you know? That there are more eyes looking up. In 'Lanterns' the siblings have a story writing contest. The youngest son chooses to do a retelling of Rapunzel.
"But unhappiness lay ahead. There's just too great a social gap between a prince and the daughter of a witch. Misfortune was about to befall them. I'll leave the rest up to my eldest sister. Please take good care of Rapunzel."
I loved that last line. Each sibling writes the rest of their tale concious of each other, unconcious of their own inner passions, yet more concious of their ideals. Eyes. Lots of them. Better than the story of Rapunzel was their eyes. I am beginning to think that fairy tale retellings need lots more eyes. Would the prince not love Rapunzel any more if she weren't beautiful? Was she too wild for acceptance? It was too big for a moral, just how I like it.
That the family were rich and bored living in an eccentric lifestyle outside of the spheres reminded me of my favorite (of the three I've read so far) Dazai, The Setting Sun, as well as the Glass family of exceptional geniuses. I loved 'Setting' soooooo much because it touched the fantasy I've yearned for as long as I can remember wanting anything. A fantasy for that very life lived outside the gaze of the every day. It wasn't their freedom of being able to do whatever they wanted, having money to spare and all that. They weren't free unless they were spinning... So true.
The Chrysanthemum Spirit is untraditional to me folktale about the romance of poverty. Since I reminded me of The Setting Sun (ha! I've been pining for when I read it), it isn't surprising that Dazai chose this story. Like Eeyore kinda enjoying sulking off by himself and not getting invited to the parties. Or Jean Genet loving prison. There's beauty to wallowing in what looks to be the bottom. Didn't anyone ever tell Sainosuke that there is always another bottom to the bottom? I may have liked this a whole lot when I was younger and attached to feeling miserable. It could be the translation that the tongue in cheek's accent is unnatural to listen to. I just only liked it. I'm trying to come up with reasons to explain why I don't feel warm in the now... I GET messages about wallowing. Finding the right moment when you don't need it any more is key. I guess these reached me too late because I don't need that. Reality and fantasy should be the same sides, light or dark as needed, of the coin.
Blue Bamboo is a moral of the story tale. If any gods knock on my door... If I was going to do more than nod "Oh, that was good" it'd have to reach me where I sleep. Okay, no more of that. I was really wanting to read another book like The Setting Sun that kept alive within me the fantasy I've always wanted to have as often as possible. It can't only be time. It's the sky thing, right? Dazai's Crackling Mountain should reach me soon. I'm going to read it. Please take care of me, of Rapunzel and of Dazai.
P.s. I love the cover art of the birds.
P.s.s. I forgot to say that the talking to onesself as understanding the world reminded me of No Longer Human. The family felt "protected" (I guess that's it?) through the dreaminess, while the reciting of facts and art caused + timed the protagonist of No Longer Human to feel further alone. Both feel right for my weird feeling of alone in fantasy. I crave both.
P.s.s.s. If only I were more analytical than emotional for times like this. Okay, the teen feeling means unfinished. I don't feel finished, but it does feel like there could be MORE. The fairy tale/teen thing feels an incomplete finished work. And I swear this has nothing to do with the deciding if I wanna live or die suicidal feeling. Dazai did kill himself. I am always trying to decide all of the time if I want to live or die, forget it as action (the deciding isn't action. It's foriegn fantasy mood). Fantasy is the leaning in to those feelings.
P.s.s.s.s. Cherry Leaves and the Whistler was good. I forgot to mention that one. I liked the story about the dying younger sister writing love letters to herself. Her sister writes her love letters (not knowing they were not from a real man) to make her feel better. When she's an old woman, and both sister and father are dead, she wonders if their father didn't take part in the myth of the lover to make them both feel better. I would have liked that better if she didn't decide it was god. The old woman wishing she'd taken lovers in youth reminded me of the seventy something year old character in John Gardner's October Light. The narcissistic desire rather than wistfulness wasn't suited for a fantasy, in my tastes.
Maybe I'm all wrong about the time thing. I missed the family of five siblings and a mother when they appeared again at the last. The grandparents were omitted until then. I agree with Dazai that that was a mistake. He knew a family like them. I don't know which is him, and which is them. I guess I don't need to know which of the Japanese fairy tales was Dazai... but I'd like to have the under the same sky feeling, you know? That there are more eyes looking up. In 'Lanterns' the siblings have a story writing contest. The youngest son chooses to do a retelling of Rapunzel.
"But unhappiness lay ahead. There's just too great a social gap between a prince and the daughter of a witch. Misfortune was about to befall them. I'll leave the rest up to my eldest sister. Please take good care of Rapunzel."
I loved that last line. Each sibling writes the rest of their tale concious of each other, unconcious of their own inner passions, yet more concious of their ideals. Eyes. Lots of them. Better than the story of Rapunzel was their eyes. I am beginning to think that fairy tale retellings need lots more eyes. Would the prince not love Rapunzel any more if she weren't beautiful? Was she too wild for acceptance? It was too big for a moral, just how I like it.
That the family were rich and bored living in an eccentric lifestyle outside of the spheres reminded me of my favorite (of the three I've read so far) Dazai, The Setting Sun, as well as the Glass family of exceptional geniuses. I loved 'Setting' soooooo much because it touched the fantasy I've yearned for as long as I can remember wanting anything. A fantasy for that very life lived outside the gaze of the every day. It wasn't their freedom of being able to do whatever they wanted, having money to spare and all that. They weren't free unless they were spinning... So true.
The Chrysanthemum Spirit is untraditional to me folktale about the romance of poverty. Since I reminded me of The Setting Sun (ha! I've been pining for when I read it), it isn't surprising that Dazai chose this story. Like Eeyore kinda enjoying sulking off by himself and not getting invited to the parties. Or Jean Genet loving prison. There's beauty to wallowing in what looks to be the bottom. Didn't anyone ever tell Sainosuke that there is always another bottom to the bottom? I may have liked this a whole lot when I was younger and attached to feeling miserable. It could be the translation that the tongue in cheek's accent is unnatural to listen to. I just only liked it. I'm trying to come up with reasons to explain why I don't feel warm in the now... I GET messages about wallowing. Finding the right moment when you don't need it any more is key. I guess these reached me too late because I don't need that. Reality and fantasy should be the same sides, light or dark as needed, of the coin.
Blue Bamboo is a moral of the story tale. If any gods knock on my door... If I was going to do more than nod "Oh, that was good" it'd have to reach me where I sleep. Okay, no more of that. I was really wanting to read another book like The Setting Sun that kept alive within me the fantasy I've always wanted to have as often as possible. It can't only be time. It's the sky thing, right? Dazai's Crackling Mountain should reach me soon. I'm going to read it. Please take care of me, of Rapunzel and of Dazai.
P.s. I love the cover art of the birds.
P.s.s. I forgot to say that the talking to onesself as understanding the world reminded me of No Longer Human. The family felt "protected" (I guess that's it?) through the dreaminess, while the reciting of facts and art caused + timed the protagonist of No Longer Human to feel further alone. Both feel right for my weird feeling of alone in fantasy. I crave both.
P.s.s.s. If only I were more analytical than emotional for times like this. Okay, the teen feeling means unfinished. I don't feel finished, but it does feel like there could be MORE. The fairy tale/teen thing feels an incomplete finished work. And I swear this has nothing to do with the deciding if I wanna live or die suicidal feeling. Dazai did kill himself. I am always trying to decide all of the time if I want to live or die, forget it as action (the deciding isn't action. It's foriegn fantasy mood). Fantasy is the leaning in to those feelings.
P.s.s.s.s. Cherry Leaves and the Whistler was good. I forgot to mention that one. I liked the story about the dying younger sister writing love letters to herself. Her sister writes her love letters (not knowing they were not from a real man) to make her feel better. When she's an old woman, and both sister and father are dead, she wonders if their father didn't take part in the myth of the lover to make them both feel better. I would have liked that better if she didn't decide it was god. The old woman wishing she'd taken lovers in youth reminded me of the seventy something year old character in John Gardner's October Light. The narcissistic desire rather than wistfulness wasn't suited for a fantasy, in my tastes.
November 21, 2025
Osamu Dazai sarsıntılı hayatı ve ölüm teşebbüsleri arasında soğukkanlı ve iyi bir yazar olarak güzel öyküler bırakmış bize. Bugün ki Japon Edebiyatı'nı düşününce hiç uzatmadan nokta vuruş gitmiş hedefine her seferinde. Açıkcası uzun zamandır en beğendiğim Japon eserlerinden biri oldu hikayeler.
July 26, 2016
My review is also posted at The Literary Sisters.
Dazai Osamu is an author quite well-known amongst fans of Japanese literature. Born in 1909, he contributed greatly to the Japanese literary tradition with works such as No Longer Human (1948), The Setting Sun (1947) and a plethora of other novels and short stories, before taking his own life in 1948. He is mostly known for the darker and depressing themes he tackles in his work, which were mostly drawn by the horrendous events of World War II.
Being acquainted with the bleak and dreary side of Dazai’s writing, I was quite surprised when I started reading Blue Bamboo, a collection of seven tales inspired by Asian tradition and mythology. As Ralph McCarthy, the translator, informs us in the Introduction, all of the tales contained in this collection, apart from one, belong to Dazai’s “middle period”, one which is often neglected by both readers and scholars.
The first story, “On Love and Beauty”, caught my interest initially because of its structure. It begins by introducing us to the members of a family that consists of five brothers and sisters. Despite being completely different in their characters and interests, they have the tradition of making stories together. One of them comes up with the beginning and each one of the rest of them subsequently adds their own parts until the story is concluded. Dazai revisits this very interesting family in the last story of this collection, “Lanterns of Romance”, where we get the opportunity to become more acquainted with this curious family, as they embark on the journey of retelling a version of Brother Grimm’s “Rapunzel”.
“The Crysanthemum Spirit” and the title story, “Blue Bamboo”, are both stories based on old Chinese tales, but Dazai manages to add some elements of his own and make them quite distinctive. “Blue Bamboo” in particular, according to McCarthy’s notes, was even originally written in Chinese as Dazai meant for the Chinese people who were already familiar with the traditional tale to read and enjoy his own take on it.
Another retelling of a Japanese story this time was “The Mermaid and the Samurai”, which I did enjoy but it definitely was my least favourite. “Romanesque” is Dazai’s earliest story, written in 1934, and it is preceeded in the book by “Alt Heidelberg”, the only story which is not based on any myth or legend but which instead is a biographical account of the days Dazai spent whilst writing “Romanesque”.
Without meaning to sound biased, I absolutely adored this collection of short stories. I was already quite fond of Dazai’s writing from what I had read before, but seeing a literary face of his radically different from the significantly darker one presented in most of his later work, made me appreciate his literary aptitude and realize that apart from a deft storyteller and analyst of the human psyche, he is also a truly versatile author who is inspired by the tales of the past and doesn’t merely stick to writing a specific type of books.
Furthermore, I truly enjoyed the fairytale atmosphere and the humorous tone most of the stories contained. Myths and fairytales fascinate me no matter where they originate from and discovering old and new retellings of them is more than enough to make me excited. Regardless of whether or not you are familiar with Dazai’s work, I would highly suggest picking up this collection, as it is a real treasure.
I received a review copy from the publisher upon my request, but that does not affect my opinion of this book in the slightest.
Dazai Osamu is an author quite well-known amongst fans of Japanese literature. Born in 1909, he contributed greatly to the Japanese literary tradition with works such as No Longer Human (1948), The Setting Sun (1947) and a plethora of other novels and short stories, before taking his own life in 1948. He is mostly known for the darker and depressing themes he tackles in his work, which were mostly drawn by the horrendous events of World War II.
Being acquainted with the bleak and dreary side of Dazai’s writing, I was quite surprised when I started reading Blue Bamboo, a collection of seven tales inspired by Asian tradition and mythology. As Ralph McCarthy, the translator, informs us in the Introduction, all of the tales contained in this collection, apart from one, belong to Dazai’s “middle period”, one which is often neglected by both readers and scholars.
The first story, “On Love and Beauty”, caught my interest initially because of its structure. It begins by introducing us to the members of a family that consists of five brothers and sisters. Despite being completely different in their characters and interests, they have the tradition of making stories together. One of them comes up with the beginning and each one of the rest of them subsequently adds their own parts until the story is concluded. Dazai revisits this very interesting family in the last story of this collection, “Lanterns of Romance”, where we get the opportunity to become more acquainted with this curious family, as they embark on the journey of retelling a version of Brother Grimm’s “Rapunzel”.
“The Crysanthemum Spirit” and the title story, “Blue Bamboo”, are both stories based on old Chinese tales, but Dazai manages to add some elements of his own and make them quite distinctive. “Blue Bamboo” in particular, according to McCarthy’s notes, was even originally written in Chinese as Dazai meant for the Chinese people who were already familiar with the traditional tale to read and enjoy his own take on it.
Another retelling of a Japanese story this time was “The Mermaid and the Samurai”, which I did enjoy but it definitely was my least favourite. “Romanesque” is Dazai’s earliest story, written in 1934, and it is preceeded in the book by “Alt Heidelberg”, the only story which is not based on any myth or legend but which instead is a biographical account of the days Dazai spent whilst writing “Romanesque”.
Without meaning to sound biased, I absolutely adored this collection of short stories. I was already quite fond of Dazai’s writing from what I had read before, but seeing a literary face of his radically different from the significantly darker one presented in most of his later work, made me appreciate his literary aptitude and realize that apart from a deft storyteller and analyst of the human psyche, he is also a truly versatile author who is inspired by the tales of the past and doesn’t merely stick to writing a specific type of books.
Furthermore, I truly enjoyed the fairytale atmosphere and the humorous tone most of the stories contained. Myths and fairytales fascinate me no matter where they originate from and discovering old and new retellings of them is more than enough to make me excited. Regardless of whether or not you are familiar with Dazai’s work, I would highly suggest picking up this collection, as it is a real treasure.
I received a review copy from the publisher upon my request, but that does not affect my opinion of this book in the slightest.
December 24, 2018
The touch of supernatural in these short tales is so subtle you could say there isn't any at all, in most of them. I love how Osamu Dazai has drawn so much from Wilde, The Grimm Brothers or Western poetry, but at the same time manages to place all these cultural allusions in the context of modern Japanese society. Few details seem to belong truly to Japanese space and nothing else (the chrysanthemum spirit, for one), and are of course even more fascinating for it.
I think this collection is the perfect fairytale book for adults. I actually read it before bedtime in midwinter and it made the evening air feel a bit magical :). Loved it.
----------------------------------------------
Here are a few excerpts I wrote down to remember:
“But happiness is being able to hope, however faintly, for happiness.”
---------------------------------------------------------
“We got off the train at Shimizu, visited Miho and Shuzenji, and the following day, on the way home, we stopped at Mishima. It’s a great place, a really great place, I kept telling the ladies as I whisked them off the train, and while I showed them about the town I tried to work myself into high spirits, recounting my memories of Mishima as amusingly as I could but gradually growing more and more crestfallen and finally slipping into such a funk that I completely lost the will to speak. The Mishima before my eyes was a desolate place, inhabited by strangers. Sakichi and his sister were no longer there. Ejima probably wasn’t either. The youths who’d once assembled each day at Sakichi’s shop were undoubtedly at home, yelling at their wives with sour, know-it-all looks on their faces. I couldn’t find a trace of the old atmosphere anywhere. But perhaps it wasn’t that Mishima’s colors had faded but simply that my own heart had grown old and withered.”
------------------------------------------------------------------
“No,” Rapunzel moaned from her sickbed. “I’m a child of misfortune. I’m the daughter of a witch. When the prince shows me his love, it only makes me all the more aware of my lowly birth. I’m so ashamed... I always think of our old home in the forest, and sometimes I even feel my life was easier when I was shut up in the tower, communing with the birds and stars. I don’t know how many times I thought of fleeing this castle and returning home. But I couldn’t bear to part with the prince. I love him. I would give him my life ten times over if I could. The prince is a kind and gentle person, and I just couldn’t bring myself to leave him. That’s why I’ve remained here all this time. I have not been happy. Every day has been hell for me. Oh, Mother! A woman should never take for her husband a man she loves with all her heart. She’ll not be the least bit happy.”
I think this collection is the perfect fairytale book for adults. I actually read it before bedtime in midwinter and it made the evening air feel a bit magical :). Loved it.
----------------------------------------------
Here are a few excerpts I wrote down to remember:
“But happiness is being able to hope, however faintly, for happiness.”
---------------------------------------------------------
“We got off the train at Shimizu, visited Miho and Shuzenji, and the following day, on the way home, we stopped at Mishima. It’s a great place, a really great place, I kept telling the ladies as I whisked them off the train, and while I showed them about the town I tried to work myself into high spirits, recounting my memories of Mishima as amusingly as I could but gradually growing more and more crestfallen and finally slipping into such a funk that I completely lost the will to speak. The Mishima before my eyes was a desolate place, inhabited by strangers. Sakichi and his sister were no longer there. Ejima probably wasn’t either. The youths who’d once assembled each day at Sakichi’s shop were undoubtedly at home, yelling at their wives with sour, know-it-all looks on their faces. I couldn’t find a trace of the old atmosphere anywhere. But perhaps it wasn’t that Mishima’s colors had faded but simply that my own heart had grown old and withered.”
------------------------------------------------------------------
“No,” Rapunzel moaned from her sickbed. “I’m a child of misfortune. I’m the daughter of a witch. When the prince shows me his love, it only makes me all the more aware of my lowly birth. I’m so ashamed... I always think of our old home in the forest, and sometimes I even feel my life was easier when I was shut up in the tower, communing with the birds and stars. I don’t know how many times I thought of fleeing this castle and returning home. But I couldn’t bear to part with the prince. I love him. I would give him my life ten times over if I could. The prince is a kind and gentle person, and I just couldn’t bring myself to leave him. That’s why I’ve remained here all this time. I have not been happy. Every day has been hell for me. Oh, Mother! A woman should never take for her husband a man she loves with all her heart. She’ll not be the least bit happy.”
April 27, 2023
Dazai'nın ‘eğlenceli’ öyküler yazmış oluşu accayip enteresan, muhtemelen bu yüzden absürd gelmiş olabilir insanlara ama dümdüzler aslında. Masalsı, büyülü, ilahi hikayeler oluşu fantastik yapıyor.
Dazai'da bir ‘istihza’ vardır her zaman ama asıl üslubunda daha çok ‘küçük-hor görme veya alay etme’ ile ilişkilidir, buradaki durum biraz ‘ironi ve kinaye’; o yüzden ‘melankolik normal’in aksine ‘maskara’ dolu.
Elbette tüm toplumlarda böyle ve geçen izlediğim (büyüklerimiz kızmasın beğenmediğim (hayır çine bedel ırkımızı aşağıladığı için değil)) Three Thousand Years of Longing'te de dediği gibi ‘öyküler açıklanamayan şeyler için yaratılır’ fikrine (ki bu kesin bir âlim argümanıdır) sonuna kadar katılıyorum ancak Japonya gibi Asya topluluklarında bu daha fazla sanki. Her zaman ya ‘kutsama’ ya ‘lanetleme’ adetleri var. Dazai bu adetle toplumun yüceltmelerini veya aşağılamalarını, onların basit ve anlamsızlığını çabasız bir üstü örtülülükle yeriyor gibi bana göre, ya da saçmalıklarına işaret ediyor.
Veyahut ben herifin acılı diline alışmışımdır ondan bana öyle gelmiştir.
Bi' de benim satır arası deşip alt metin arama fetişimden de kaynaklanmış olabilir.
Çünkü en popi kitabını okumadım.
- Romanesk en sevdiğim oldu, bana ‘çok tuhaf ya bidakkk’ dedirten ve sonunda bir araya gelen üç öykücükten oluşuyor (üç öykünün sonda buluşmasından bağımsız sevdim)
- Denizkızı Denizi'ni görünce çok sevinmiştim Samurai + Denizkızı aşkı olacak diye heç alakası yok üzüldüm
- Hazakura ve Sihirli Islık tm sürpriz sonlu fln ama en basit bulduğumdu ve niye Çin'e armağan bilmiyorum
- 5 kardeşin bulunduğu bir aile ve bu kardeşlerin birlikte yazdığı öykülerin olduğu 2 öykü var, biri Aşk ve Güzellik Hakkında diğeri Romantizm Feneri, resmen öyküception, hem bu 5 kardeşin karakterizasyonu inanılmaz zevkli bir okuma yarattı hem de 5'inin yazdığı öyküler güzel
- Onurlu Yoksulluk Hikayesi tokatladığı bir öykü de Pu Songling'e aitmiş falan nasıl oluyor şimdi bu işleri hiç anlamıyorum
- Yeşil Bambu da tokat gibi ama hafif bu, ‘insan olun edepli olun’ değil de ‘adam olun akıllı olun’ gibi bir tavır
Dazai'da bir ‘istihza’ vardır her zaman ama asıl üslubunda daha çok ‘küçük-hor görme veya alay etme’ ile ilişkilidir, buradaki durum biraz ‘ironi ve kinaye’; o yüzden ‘melankolik normal’in aksine ‘maskara’ dolu.
Elbette tüm toplumlarda böyle ve geçen izlediğim (büyüklerimiz kızmasın beğenmediğim (hayır çine bedel ırkımızı aşağıladığı için değil)) Three Thousand Years of Longing'te de dediği gibi ‘öyküler açıklanamayan şeyler için yaratılır’ fikrine (ki bu kesin bir âlim argümanıdır) sonuna kadar katılıyorum ancak Japonya gibi Asya topluluklarında bu daha fazla sanki. Her zaman ya ‘kutsama’ ya ‘lanetleme’ adetleri var. Dazai bu adetle toplumun yüceltmelerini veya aşağılamalarını, onların basit ve anlamsızlığını çabasız bir üstü örtülülükle yeriyor gibi bana göre, ya da saçmalıklarına işaret ediyor.
Veyahut ben herifin acılı diline alışmışımdır ondan bana öyle gelmiştir.
Bi' de benim satır arası deşip alt metin arama fetişimden de kaynaklanmış olabilir.
Çünkü en popi kitabını okumadım.
“...yaşlandıkça yanlış olduğunu bilsem de dünyevi arzularımın ortaya çıkışı inancımı zayıflatıyor.”
- Romanesk en sevdiğim oldu, bana ‘çok tuhaf ya bidakkk’ dedirten ve sonunda bir araya gelen üç öykücükten oluşuyor (üç öykünün sonda buluşmasından bağımsız sevdim)
- Denizkızı Denizi'ni görünce çok sevinmiştim Samurai + Denizkızı aşkı olacak diye heç alakası yok üzüldüm
- Hazakura ve Sihirli Islık tm sürpriz sonlu fln ama en basit bulduğumdu ve niye Çin'e armağan bilmiyorum
- 5 kardeşin bulunduğu bir aile ve bu kardeşlerin birlikte yazdığı öykülerin olduğu 2 öykü var, biri Aşk ve Güzellik Hakkında diğeri Romantizm Feneri, resmen öyküception, hem bu 5 kardeşin karakterizasyonu inanılmaz zevkli bir okuma yarattı hem de 5'inin yazdığı öyküler güzel
- Onurlu Yoksulluk Hikayesi tokatladığı bir öykü de Pu Songling'e aitmiş falan nasıl oluyor şimdi bu işleri hiç anlamıyorum
- Yeşil Bambu da tokat gibi ama hafif bu, ‘insan olun edepli olun’ değil de ‘adam olun akıllı olun’ gibi bir tavır
bi' de mavi niye yeşil oldu?
xoxoxo
iko
April 29, 2019
The Chrysanthemum Spirit
"...That night Saburo came smiling to the cottage.
“Sorry about this morning,” he said. ‘But listen, my sister and I were talking things over, and, well, if you’ll pardon my saying so, you don’t seem to be leading a very comfortable life here. We were thinking that if you’d lend me half your garden, I could grow some really first-rate mums for you to sell in the market in Asakusa or somewhere. I’d be happy to do it.”
Sainosuke, whose-self esteem as a grower of chrysanthemums had been severely shaken that morning, was not in the best of moods. Seeing this as a chance to even the score, he twisted his lips in a contemptuous sneer.
“Out of question,” he said.”Of all the vulgar ideas! And here I thought you were a man of taste and breeding. I’m shocked. To even think of selling one’s beloved flowers simply to put food on the table! It’s too outrageous for words, a violation of the very spirit of chrysanthemums! To turn a noble-minded pastime into a scheme to make money is, why it’s, it’s obscene, is what it is. I’ll have nothing to do with it.”
Sainosuke spewed out his rebuke in the gruff and guttural tones of a samurai issuing a challenge, and Saburo, understandably enough, took offense. His reply was rather heated.
“Using one’s god-given talent to put food on the table hardly qualifies as greed, and to sneer at me and accuse me of being vulgar for wishing to do so is appallingly wrongheaded. It’s arrogant and childish- the attitude of a spoiled little brat. It’s true that a man shouldn’t be overly covetous of riches, but to take undue pride in one’s poverty is every bit as base and mean.”
“When have I ever boasted of my poverty? Look, my ancestors left me a small inheritance, and it’s all I’ve ever needed. I want for nothing. And I’ll thank you not to meddle in my affairs”
...
“All right, all right!” Saburo shrugged and smiled ruefully. ‘You win. But listen: There’s a small ploy of bare ground behind the shed. Would you consider lending that to us for the time being?”
“You must realize by now that I’m not a man who’s attached to worldly possessions. I don’t imagine you’ll find such a tiny plot sufficient to your needs. Half my garden remains unplanted: take all of that if you like. Do with it as you see fit. Allow me to make one thing clear, however: I will not associate with anyone who grows mums with the intention of offering them for sale. From this day on, I want you to consider me a complete stranger”.
Saburo gaped at him incredulously for a moment, then shook his head in exasperation.
“So be it,” he said. “I won’t refuse such a generous offer. In fact, if I might further impose upon your generosity, I noticed that you have been discarded a number of old chrysanthemum seedlings behind the shed...”
“You needn’t bother me with requests for every trifle. Take them.”
And thus they parted , on the worst of terms....
... As autumn advanced all of Sainosuke’s chrysanthemums burst into beautiful bloom. Satisfying as he was, he couldn’t help wondering how his neighbours’ flowers had fared, and one day his curiosity got the best of him and he decided to peek over the fence. What he saw left him agog. The other half of the garden was ablaze from end to end with the largest and most spectacular blooms Sainosuke had ever seen. And that wasn’t the only surprise. The shed had been rebuilt and was now a charming and cozy little cottage.... It was an outrage!...Close up, Saburo’s mums were even more impressive. The flowers were blooming for all they were worth; each individual petal was extraordinarily long and thick and vibrating with life. Adding insult to the injury was the fact that, as Sainosuke soon realized, the plants were none other than the worthless seedlings he’s discarded behind the shed...” ...
....
Sainosuke had just begun to consider severing relations again when, one day, Saburo came calling with a pensive and serious expression on his face.
“Please accept my sister as your bride.“ he said somberly. Sainosuke could feel his cheeks burning. From the first time he’d laid eyes on the sister he’d been unable to dispel that image of tenderness and purity from his mind. But true to for, his manly pride now forced him to launch into a queer sort of argument...."
"...That night Saburo came smiling to the cottage.
“Sorry about this morning,” he said. ‘But listen, my sister and I were talking things over, and, well, if you’ll pardon my saying so, you don’t seem to be leading a very comfortable life here. We were thinking that if you’d lend me half your garden, I could grow some really first-rate mums for you to sell in the market in Asakusa or somewhere. I’d be happy to do it.”
Sainosuke, whose-self esteem as a grower of chrysanthemums had been severely shaken that morning, was not in the best of moods. Seeing this as a chance to even the score, he twisted his lips in a contemptuous sneer.
“Out of question,” he said.”Of all the vulgar ideas! And here I thought you were a man of taste and breeding. I’m shocked. To even think of selling one’s beloved flowers simply to put food on the table! It’s too outrageous for words, a violation of the very spirit of chrysanthemums! To turn a noble-minded pastime into a scheme to make money is, why it’s, it’s obscene, is what it is. I’ll have nothing to do with it.”
Sainosuke spewed out his rebuke in the gruff and guttural tones of a samurai issuing a challenge, and Saburo, understandably enough, took offense. His reply was rather heated.
“Using one’s god-given talent to put food on the table hardly qualifies as greed, and to sneer at me and accuse me of being vulgar for wishing to do so is appallingly wrongheaded. It’s arrogant and childish- the attitude of a spoiled little brat. It’s true that a man shouldn’t be overly covetous of riches, but to take undue pride in one’s poverty is every bit as base and mean.”
“When have I ever boasted of my poverty? Look, my ancestors left me a small inheritance, and it’s all I’ve ever needed. I want for nothing. And I’ll thank you not to meddle in my affairs”
...
“All right, all right!” Saburo shrugged and smiled ruefully. ‘You win. But listen: There’s a small ploy of bare ground behind the shed. Would you consider lending that to us for the time being?”
“You must realize by now that I’m not a man who’s attached to worldly possessions. I don’t imagine you’ll find such a tiny plot sufficient to your needs. Half my garden remains unplanted: take all of that if you like. Do with it as you see fit. Allow me to make one thing clear, however: I will not associate with anyone who grows mums with the intention of offering them for sale. From this day on, I want you to consider me a complete stranger”.
Saburo gaped at him incredulously for a moment, then shook his head in exasperation.
“So be it,” he said. “I won’t refuse such a generous offer. In fact, if I might further impose upon your generosity, I noticed that you have been discarded a number of old chrysanthemum seedlings behind the shed...”
“You needn’t bother me with requests for every trifle. Take them.”
And thus they parted , on the worst of terms....
... As autumn advanced all of Sainosuke’s chrysanthemums burst into beautiful bloom. Satisfying as he was, he couldn’t help wondering how his neighbours’ flowers had fared, and one day his curiosity got the best of him and he decided to peek over the fence. What he saw left him agog. The other half of the garden was ablaze from end to end with the largest and most spectacular blooms Sainosuke had ever seen. And that wasn’t the only surprise. The shed had been rebuilt and was now a charming and cozy little cottage.... It was an outrage!...Close up, Saburo’s mums were even more impressive. The flowers were blooming for all they were worth; each individual petal was extraordinarily long and thick and vibrating with life. Adding insult to the injury was the fact that, as Sainosuke soon realized, the plants were none other than the worthless seedlings he’s discarded behind the shed...” ...
....
Sainosuke had just begun to consider severing relations again when, one day, Saburo came calling with a pensive and serious expression on his face.
“Please accept my sister as your bride.“ he said somberly. Sainosuke could feel his cheeks burning. From the first time he’d laid eyes on the sister he’d been unable to dispel that image of tenderness and purity from his mind. But true to for, his manly pride now forced him to launch into a queer sort of argument...."
June 14, 2022
Puanım 4/5 (%75/100)
İçerisinde 7 öykü bulunan ve genel olarak fantastik diyebileceğim oldukça absürt ama eğlenceli bir kitaptı. Dazai herkesin seveceği bir yazar değil ve ben de kendisine yeni yeni alışıyorum diyebilirim. Bir bütün olarak kitap hoşuma gitti ama öykülerden tek tek bahsedip puanlayacağım (olabildiğince spoiler vermeden tabi ki).
1-Yeşil Bambu:Kitaba ismini veren oldukça garip bir öyküydü. Hayatı oldukça kötü giden bir adam ve kargaya dönüşüyor. Genel olarak hayatın kötü olsa da insan olmanın aslında daha iyi olduğunu anlatmaya çalışan bir öykü. Orjinali Pu Songling adında Çinli bir yazar tarafından yazılmış ve Dazai da sonunda Çinceye çevirin onlar için yazdım gibi bir şey demiş. İngilizce adı Blue Bamboo (Mavi Bambu) ve Japonca adı da Mavi olarak geçiyor. Çince adı Yeşil ama sanırım. O yüzden garip bir şeyler olmuş çeviride, doğrusunu bilen söyleyebilir. 2.5/5.
2-Aşk ve Güzellik Hakkında:Oldukça absürt ama eğlenceli bir öyküydü. 5 erkek kardeş var ve hepsi birbirinden garip. Bunlardan birisi boşanıyor ve tekrar evleniyor ama evlendiği kişi boşandığı kişinin gençlik fotoğrafıyla aynı. Anlamadınız değil mi? Okuyun seversiniz. 4/5.
3-Hazakura ve Sihirli Islık:Tüberkulozdan ölen genç bir kız var ve kendi kendisine sevgilisiymiş gibi mektuplar yazıyor. Garipti ama oldukça üzücüydü. 4/5.
4-Onurlu Yoksulluk Hikayesi:Dazai bunu da Pu Songling'den almış (2022'de İthaki çıkaracağını söylüyor bu yazarın kitabını). Bunu da okumanız lazım çünkü çok garipti. Adamın birisi çok kibirli ve krizantem (kasımpatı) yetiştiriyor. Ondan daha iyi krizantem yetiştiren birisi de var. Ruhlar var ve krizantemler aslında insanmış falan. 4/5.
5-Denizkızı Denizi:Samuray, buşido (samuray kodu), denizkızı ve doğaüstü şeyler üzerinden gidiyor. Genel olarak fena değildi. Ünlü bir hikayeden adapte etmiş Dazai. Bir yerinde Ryomen-sukuna'nın adı geçiyordu (Jujutsu Kaisen izleyenler bilir) ve Roma mitolojisindeki Janus'a benzetilmiş. 3/5.
6-Romanesk:Çok hoşuma gitmedi. İçerisinde 3 tane çok kısa öykü var ama öykümsü demek daha doğru çünkü bir anda bitiyor gibi ama bitmiyor gibi de aynı zamanda. Dazai'ın yazarlığa ilk başladığında yazdığı yazılarmış sanırım o yüzden tamamlanmamış gibi. Yine de absürt komedi gibi hoş yerleri vardı. 2/5.
7-Romantizm Feneri:2. öyküdeki 5 kardeşi tekrar görüyoruz. Yine hikaye içerisinde hikaye gibi bir yapısı vardı. Absürtlüklerle dolu, eğlenceli ve ilginçti. Önceki kadar olmasa da genel olarak sevdim. 3.5/5.
İçerisinde 7 öykü bulunan ve genel olarak fantastik diyebileceğim oldukça absürt ama eğlenceli bir kitaptı. Dazai herkesin seveceği bir yazar değil ve ben de kendisine yeni yeni alışıyorum diyebilirim. Bir bütün olarak kitap hoşuma gitti ama öykülerden tek tek bahsedip puanlayacağım (olabildiğince spoiler vermeden tabi ki).
1-Yeşil Bambu:Kitaba ismini veren oldukça garip bir öyküydü. Hayatı oldukça kötü giden bir adam ve kargaya dönüşüyor. Genel olarak hayatın kötü olsa da insan olmanın aslında daha iyi olduğunu anlatmaya çalışan bir öykü. Orjinali Pu Songling adında Çinli bir yazar tarafından yazılmış ve Dazai da sonunda Çinceye çevirin onlar için yazdım gibi bir şey demiş. İngilizce adı Blue Bamboo (Mavi Bambu) ve Japonca adı da Mavi olarak geçiyor. Çince adı Yeşil ama sanırım. O yüzden garip bir şeyler olmuş çeviride, doğrusunu bilen söyleyebilir. 2.5/5.
2-Aşk ve Güzellik Hakkında:Oldukça absürt ama eğlenceli bir öyküydü. 5 erkek kardeş var ve hepsi birbirinden garip. Bunlardan birisi boşanıyor ve tekrar evleniyor ama evlendiği kişi boşandığı kişinin gençlik fotoğrafıyla aynı. Anlamadınız değil mi? Okuyun seversiniz. 4/5.
3-Hazakura ve Sihirli Islık:Tüberkulozdan ölen genç bir kız var ve kendi kendisine sevgilisiymiş gibi mektuplar yazıyor. Garipti ama oldukça üzücüydü. 4/5.
4-Onurlu Yoksulluk Hikayesi:Dazai bunu da Pu Songling'den almış (2022'de İthaki çıkaracağını söylüyor bu yazarın kitabını). Bunu da okumanız lazım çünkü çok garipti. Adamın birisi çok kibirli ve krizantem (kasımpatı) yetiştiriyor. Ondan daha iyi krizantem yetiştiren birisi de var. Ruhlar var ve krizantemler aslında insanmış falan. 4/5.
5-Denizkızı Denizi:Samuray, buşido (samuray kodu), denizkızı ve doğaüstü şeyler üzerinden gidiyor. Genel olarak fena değildi. Ünlü bir hikayeden adapte etmiş Dazai. Bir yerinde Ryomen-sukuna'nın adı geçiyordu (Jujutsu Kaisen izleyenler bilir) ve Roma mitolojisindeki Janus'a benzetilmiş. 3/5.
6-Romanesk:Çok hoşuma gitmedi. İçerisinde 3 tane çok kısa öykü var ama öykümsü demek daha doğru çünkü bir anda bitiyor gibi ama bitmiyor gibi de aynı zamanda. Dazai'ın yazarlığa ilk başladığında yazdığı yazılarmış sanırım o yüzden tamamlanmamış gibi. Yine de absürt komedi gibi hoş yerleri vardı. 2/5.
7-Romantizm Feneri:2. öyküdeki 5 kardeşi tekrar görüyoruz. Yine hikaye içerisinde hikaye gibi bir yapısı vardı. Absürtlüklerle dolu, eğlenceli ve ilginçti. Önceki kadar olmasa da genel olarak sevdim. 3.5/5.
December 28, 2024
i just adore dazai in every universe.
April 14, 2022
loved this so so much .. "lead the way, blue bamboo" was so sweet idk why i loved that line so much maybe im just lonely and sad and gay.
October 6, 2024
3,7/5
Kratke zgodbice osnovane na (kokr sm js razumela) srednjeveških kitajskih zgodbicah. Bolj so razširjene pa dane v kontekst, ki je izmišljen iz strani avtorja. Originally napisane v japonščini, ampak sprva prevedene v kitajščino in najprej objavljene v kitajščini, šele potem v japonščini.
Drgač dost zanimive zgodbice, sam nobena ni preveč izstopala, da bi rekla 'okej ta je bla impressive'. Mogoče edina, ki mi je bila nadpovprečno všeč je 'Blue Bamboo' zgodbica.
Kratke zgodbice osnovane na (kokr sm js razumela) srednjeveških kitajskih zgodbicah. Bolj so razširjene pa dane v kontekst, ki je izmišljen iz strani avtorja. Originally napisane v japonščini, ampak sprva prevedene v kitajščino in najprej objavljene v kitajščini, šele potem v japonščini.
Drgač dost zanimive zgodbice, sam nobena ni preveč izstopala, da bi rekla 'okej ta je bla impressive'. Mogoče edina, ki mi je bila nadpovprečno všeč je 'Blue Bamboo' zgodbica.
December 26, 2020
Human beings must suffer through their entire lives amid the love and hate that rule their world. There is no escape. All you can do is endure. Endure and struggle, struggle and endure. Learning is a splendid thing, but to make a show of having risen above worldly affairs is cowardly and mean. You must become even more attached to the world, and spend your life immersed in the hardships it presents you with.
(*an excerpt from Blue Bamboo, the titular story of this collection. It’s a memorable and perhaps deeply ironic one, considering that the person who wrote it had repeatedly made suicide attempts, eventually succeeding at the mere age of 39)
This is the first of Osamu Dazai’s work that I read, and I had a lot of fun. This version was retranslated by Ralph F. McCarthy, who did an excellent job at making the text very accessible to me, while also conveying the signature sense of classic Japanese melancholia. There are seven stories in total; four of them are fantastical tales in the vein of folklore and fables, and the other three are ‘normal’ stories told in very interesting manner. The breakdown:
The whole thing brims with playfulness and a sense of not taking itself too seriously, which you might not readily associate with the image of a classic literary titan; let alone one who was apparently afflicted with chronic suicidal mania. Most of these stories even have happy endings! I’ve had plenty of laughs and chuckles at the sheer cheekiness of it all, and yet, I was also mesmerized by the clear display of Dazai’s writing skills as well as the unmistakable affection for his oftentimes pathetic characters.
(*an excerpt from Blue Bamboo, the titular story of this collection. It’s a memorable and perhaps deeply ironic one, considering that the person who wrote it had repeatedly made suicide attempts, eventually succeeding at the mere age of 39)
This is the first of Osamu Dazai’s work that I read, and I had a lot of fun. This version was retranslated by Ralph F. McCarthy, who did an excellent job at making the text very accessible to me, while also conveying the signature sense of classic Japanese melancholia. There are seven stories in total; four of them are fantastical tales in the vein of folklore and fables, and the other three are ‘normal’ stories told in very interesting manner. The breakdown:
The whole thing brims with playfulness and a sense of not taking itself too seriously, which you might not readily associate with the image of a classic literary titan; let alone one who was apparently afflicted with chronic suicidal mania. Most of these stories even have happy endings! I’ve had plenty of laughs and chuckles at the sheer cheekiness of it all, and yet, I was also mesmerized by the clear display of Dazai’s writing skills as well as the unmistakable affection for his oftentimes pathetic characters.
January 6, 2012
Osamu Dazai is, in my humble opinion, underrated as an author. This book contains seven short stories: 愛と美について (ai to bi nit suite) “On Love and Beauty” ,葉桜と魔笛 (hazakura to mateki) “Cherry Leaves and the Whistler”, 清貧譚 (seihintan) “The Chrysanthemum Spirit”, 人魚の海 (Ningyo no umi) “The Mermaid and the Samurai”, 竹青 (Chikusei) “Blue Bamboo”, ロマネスク (Romanesuku) “Romanesque”, and ろまん燈籠 (Roman dourou) “Lanterns of Romance”.
The narrative lines of these stories range from mundane topics to those which include the supernatural. The prosaic stories lines include: children taking turns story telling [ろまん燈籠 (Roman dourou) and 愛と美について (ai to bi nit suite)], and the power of letter writing [葉桜と魔笛 (hazakura to mateki)].
The supernatural motifs include the events surrounding the death of a mermaid [ 人魚の海 (Ningyo no umi)... on a side note, I would translate this title as "The Mermaid's ocean," not "The Mermaid and the Samurai, which was provided in the text], the multiple rebirths of ill-treated scholar through the blessing of the gods 竹青 (Chikusei), and wizards [ロマネスク (Romanesuku)].
This set of short stories is refreshing. "Blue Bamboo" does not hover insistently in the colors of depression, and the entries include concepts from outside of Japan without the use of orientalist devices.
Because I study contemporary literacies, this book was particularly enjoyable for me. It was filled with references on how people write one another, make stories, and use books. One of my favorite excerpts was from "Saburō the Liar," a character in ロマネスク (Romanesuku).
Here is an excerpt for your enjoyment!
“As his skill at lying grew ever more remarkable, Saburō began to ghostwrite letters for two or three of the students who studied under Kōson. His specialty was writing parents to ask for money. He would begin with a brief description of the weather and scenery, express an innocent hope that all was well with the beloved and respected parent, then delve right into the matter at hand. Nothing, to Saburō’s mind, could be more ineffective than to begin with long, drawn-out passages full of groveling flattery and end with a plea for money. The plea only made the flattery all the more transparent and gave the whole letter an air of sordid insincerity. Better to pluck up one’s courage and get to the heart of the matter as quickly as possible. It was also advisable to keep things short and succinct. Like this:
'We are about to begin our study of the Book of Songs. If purchased from the local bookseller, the text costs twenty-two yen. Profvessor Kōson, however, having kindly taken into consideration the financial status of his students, has decided to order the books directly from China. The cost comes to fifteen yen, eighty sen per volume. Since passing up this opportunity would mean suffereing a substantial loss, I should like to order one of the books from him as soon as possible. Please send fifteen yen, eighty sen posthaste…After getting the request for money out of the way, one should then describe some trifling everyday occurrence. For example: Yesterday, looking out my wondow, I watched a single hawk doing battle with any number of crows—truly a valiant, soul-stirring sight. Or: The day before yesterday, as I was taking a walk along the banks of the Sumida River, I found the most peculiar little flower. It had small petals, like those of a morning glory, or, rather, quite large petals, you might say, like a sweet pea, and was white, but on the reddish side—such a rare find that I dug it up, roots and all, and replanted it in a pot in my room…'
And so on, rambling leisurely along as if one had forgotten all about money, or anything else. The beloved father, reading this letter, would reflect upon the tranquility in his son’s heart and, ashamed of the wordly cares that plagued his own, send off the cash with a smile. Saburō’s letters really did have such an effect.”
The narrative lines of these stories range from mundane topics to those which include the supernatural. The prosaic stories lines include: children taking turns story telling [ろまん燈籠 (Roman dourou) and 愛と美について (ai to bi nit suite)], and the power of letter writing [葉桜と魔笛 (hazakura to mateki)].
The supernatural motifs include the events surrounding the death of a mermaid [ 人魚の海 (Ningyo no umi)... on a side note, I would translate this title as "The Mermaid's ocean," not "The Mermaid and the Samurai, which was provided in the text], the multiple rebirths of ill-treated scholar through the blessing of the gods 竹青 (Chikusei), and wizards [ロマネスク (Romanesuku)].
This set of short stories is refreshing. "Blue Bamboo" does not hover insistently in the colors of depression, and the entries include concepts from outside of Japan without the use of orientalist devices.
Because I study contemporary literacies, this book was particularly enjoyable for me. It was filled with references on how people write one another, make stories, and use books. One of my favorite excerpts was from "Saburō the Liar," a character in ロマネスク (Romanesuku).
Here is an excerpt for your enjoyment!
“As his skill at lying grew ever more remarkable, Saburō began to ghostwrite letters for two or three of the students who studied under Kōson. His specialty was writing parents to ask for money. He would begin with a brief description of the weather and scenery, express an innocent hope that all was well with the beloved and respected parent, then delve right into the matter at hand. Nothing, to Saburō’s mind, could be more ineffective than to begin with long, drawn-out passages full of groveling flattery and end with a plea for money. The plea only made the flattery all the more transparent and gave the whole letter an air of sordid insincerity. Better to pluck up one’s courage and get to the heart of the matter as quickly as possible. It was also advisable to keep things short and succinct. Like this:
'We are about to begin our study of the Book of Songs. If purchased from the local bookseller, the text costs twenty-two yen. Profvessor Kōson, however, having kindly taken into consideration the financial status of his students, has decided to order the books directly from China. The cost comes to fifteen yen, eighty sen per volume. Since passing up this opportunity would mean suffereing a substantial loss, I should like to order one of the books from him as soon as possible. Please send fifteen yen, eighty sen posthaste…After getting the request for money out of the way, one should then describe some trifling everyday occurrence. For example: Yesterday, looking out my wondow, I watched a single hawk doing battle with any number of crows—truly a valiant, soul-stirring sight. Or: The day before yesterday, as I was taking a walk along the banks of the Sumida River, I found the most peculiar little flower. It had small petals, like those of a morning glory, or, rather, quite large petals, you might say, like a sweet pea, and was white, but on the reddish side—such a rare find that I dug it up, roots and all, and replanted it in a pot in my room…'
And so on, rambling leisurely along as if one had forgotten all about money, or anything else. The beloved father, reading this letter, would reflect upon the tranquility in his son’s heart and, ashamed of the wordly cares that plagued his own, send off the cash with a smile. Saburō’s letters really did have such an effect.”
October 16, 2013
On Love and Beauty: Adorably pretentious family and their silly story-telling game. All wrapped up in gentle irony.
Cherry Leaves and the Whistler: I like that this cute, sad little tale hinges on someone whistling this mad wartime classic: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A75AQg....
The Chrysanthemum Spirit: Stubborn little chap is determined to grow Chrysanthemums.
"When autumn came, Saburo's seedling, which Sainosuke had replanted in his garden, produced a single blossom. The flower was faintly rouge, like a drinker's blush, and gave off a light scent of sake."
The Mermaid and the Samurai: This little story should be a film. Gripping, magical, adorable.
"These words of encouragement, stouthearted though they were, only left Konnai feeling all the more keenly his sorrow and woe, and for some moment, wracked with mournful sobs, he could make no reply at all. Such it is for those in the grips of misfortune: declarations of support and sympathy, rather than providing comfort, may merely increase the victim's pain. Overwhelmed with despair, Konnai bowed his head and cried manly tears, even as he resigned himself to the fact that his life was all but over. At length, wiping the tears away with his fists, he looked up and spoke in a voice still punctuated with sobs:
'Thank you. The abuse whch Hyakuemon has heaped upon me today is scarcely such as I can find it in me to ignore. ... Being in the presence of His Lordship, however, I had no choice but to endure the unendurable and choke back the tears of vexation.'"
"'To think that all for some meaningless debate over mermaids, a worthy man must die!'"
"Certain now that her father was in some sort of trouble, Yae, samurai child that she was, slept that night in her kimono, with the sash firmly tied, curled up in a ball and hugging a dagger to her breast."
Blue Bamboo: Poor chap with awful life meets a new crow girlfriend.
Romanesque: This was my absolute favourite. It's in three parts, with a sting in the tail.
Taro the Wizard:
"Autumn brought even better things: apples as big as grapefruit and as red as coral hung from the trees in dense clusters. So juicy were these apples that if you plucked one and bit into it, the skin would burst with a loud crack and sweet, cold spray would gush out to soak your nose and cheeks."
"Before long he learned how to turn himself into a praying mantis as well, but this proved disappointing. There was nothing particularly fun about being a praying mantis."
"Taro approached the mirror with his heart in his mouth ... and received the shock of his life. His skin was so white as to be almost colorless; his cheeks were full and round and soft and smooth; his eyes were the narrowest conceivable slits; and a long, stringy mustache drooped down below his chin. It was a face that would have looked right at home on any eighth-century Buddhist statue. Even the splendid article between his legs resembled those of the men of old, hanging down long and fat and heavy."
Jirobei the Fighter:
"When you find yourself looking ridiculous, reasoning isn't worth a turd. If a man offends you, strike him down."
"The training was complete. Jirobei looked more solid and imposing than ever and was so musclebound that it took him a full minute just to turn his head to the left or right."
Saburo the Liar:
"Saburo felt as if he could smell the unbearable stench of deception's final, sputtering fart."
"The lies become blacker and more complex, they mesh and rub together until in the end they shine with the luster of truth."
Lanterns of Romance: The same charming family from the first story, playing one of their story-telling games again.
Cherry Leaves and the Whistler: I like that this cute, sad little tale hinges on someone whistling this mad wartime classic: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A75AQg....
The Chrysanthemum Spirit: Stubborn little chap is determined to grow Chrysanthemums.
"When autumn came, Saburo's seedling, which Sainosuke had replanted in his garden, produced a single blossom. The flower was faintly rouge, like a drinker's blush, and gave off a light scent of sake."
The Mermaid and the Samurai: This little story should be a film. Gripping, magical, adorable.
"These words of encouragement, stouthearted though they were, only left Konnai feeling all the more keenly his sorrow and woe, and for some moment, wracked with mournful sobs, he could make no reply at all. Such it is for those in the grips of misfortune: declarations of support and sympathy, rather than providing comfort, may merely increase the victim's pain. Overwhelmed with despair, Konnai bowed his head and cried manly tears, even as he resigned himself to the fact that his life was all but over. At length, wiping the tears away with his fists, he looked up and spoke in a voice still punctuated with sobs:
'Thank you. The abuse whch Hyakuemon has heaped upon me today is scarcely such as I can find it in me to ignore. ... Being in the presence of His Lordship, however, I had no choice but to endure the unendurable and choke back the tears of vexation.'"
"'To think that all for some meaningless debate over mermaids, a worthy man must die!'"
"Certain now that her father was in some sort of trouble, Yae, samurai child that she was, slept that night in her kimono, with the sash firmly tied, curled up in a ball and hugging a dagger to her breast."
Blue Bamboo: Poor chap with awful life meets a new crow girlfriend.
Romanesque: This was my absolute favourite. It's in three parts, with a sting in the tail.
Taro the Wizard:
"Autumn brought even better things: apples as big as grapefruit and as red as coral hung from the trees in dense clusters. So juicy were these apples that if you plucked one and bit into it, the skin would burst with a loud crack and sweet, cold spray would gush out to soak your nose and cheeks."
"Before long he learned how to turn himself into a praying mantis as well, but this proved disappointing. There was nothing particularly fun about being a praying mantis."
"Taro approached the mirror with his heart in his mouth ... and received the shock of his life. His skin was so white as to be almost colorless; his cheeks were full and round and soft and smooth; his eyes were the narrowest conceivable slits; and a long, stringy mustache drooped down below his chin. It was a face that would have looked right at home on any eighth-century Buddhist statue. Even the splendid article between his legs resembled those of the men of old, hanging down long and fat and heavy."
Jirobei the Fighter:
"When you find yourself looking ridiculous, reasoning isn't worth a turd. If a man offends you, strike him down."
"The training was complete. Jirobei looked more solid and imposing than ever and was so musclebound that it took him a full minute just to turn his head to the left or right."
Saburo the Liar:
"Saburo felt as if he could smell the unbearable stench of deception's final, sputtering fart."
"The lies become blacker and more complex, they mesh and rub together until in the end they shine with the luster of truth."
Lanterns of Romance: The same charming family from the first story, playing one of their story-telling games again.
June 17, 2022
Arada çok güzel noktalar da var ama genel olarak vasat geldi. Fikri olmayanların anlayamayacağı terimlerin bir kısmı ç.n. olarak var, bir kısmı yok (tengu). Çeviri yazarın üslubunu doğru aktaramıyor gibi geldi. (Yazarın başka eserini başka çevirmenlerden okuduktan sonra yorumumu güncellerim.) "Tabii ki de", "ne ... ne ... + olumSUZ", bir notta anlatım bozukluğu, güvercin yerine güvencin yazılması, metinde "karuto" yazarken ç.n.'de "karuta" yazılması (doğrusu karuta), vb. hatalar mevcut.
April 10, 2025
Dazai'ın bu tarz öykülerini okumak keyifliydi lakin hem çeviri hem editöryel bakımdan vasattı. Dazai'ın o güzel kalemini bilmesem, dokunuşlarını bilmesem neyse derdim de diyemiyorum. Lütfen herkes Dazai çevirmesin, yazık oluyor eserlere..
September 10, 2024
3.5*
کتاب شامل ماجراهایی از خانواده ی یک نقاش شهیر ژاپنی به اسم شینوسوکه ئی ریه ست و از زبان نویسنده ای روایت میشه که آشنایی قدیمی ای با این خانواده و فرزندانشون داره.
خود نقاش فوت شده و پنج فرزندش به همراه مادر، مادربزرگ و پدربزرگشون زندگی میکنن..
داستان با توصیفاتی از خصوصیات ظاهری و اخلاقی پنج خواهر و برادر شروع میشه و کمی بعد راوی اشاره ای میکنه به عادت جالبی که این پنج دختر و پسر دارن:
روزهای ملال انگیز و کسالت بار، جوونها دور هم جمع میشن و شروع میکنن به ساختن یک داستان، به این صورت که معمولا کوچک ترین پسر، وظیفه ی خلق بخش اول داستان و معرفی شخصیت اصلی رو به عهده میگیره و بعد از اون باقی خواهر برادرها به ترتیب، قسمتی به این داستان اضافه میکنن و داستان رو پیش میبرن و به پایان میرسونن!!
گاهی حتی مادر، مادربزرگ و پدربزرگ هم بهشون میپیوندن و همراهیشون میکنن!
در ابتدای کتاب، بعد از معرفی اعضای خانواده ی ئی ریه، یکی از داستان هایی که در یک یکشنبه ی کسالت بار توسط خواهر و برادرها، ساخته میشه، آورده شده.
نصف دوم کتاب هم به طور کامل، به داستان دیگه ای از این خانواده اختصاص پیدا میکنه که نوشتنش طی پنج روز اول سال نو صورت گرفته..
خود نویسنده ای که راوی داستانهایی از خانواده ی ئی ریه ست یکجا یادآور میشه:
«آن داستان با توصیف پنج دختر و پسر خانواده ی ئی ریه آغاز شد و با شرح اتفاقی کوچک و بی اهمیت ادامه پیدا کرد.
بی شک کاری بی تکلف، احساساتی و پیش پا افتاده است، اما من همچنان دوستش دارم؛ البته باید اذعان کنم که بیشتر از آنکه به آن داستان علاقه داشته باشم به خانواده ای که در آن داستان توصیف شد علاقه مند هستم.
در واقع عاشق آن خانواده هستم.»
و دقیقا حس من هم به کتاب همین بود!
دازای در واقع تو این کتاب، بخشهایی از زندگی روزمره ی یک خانواده ی عادی، به خصوص روابط خواهر و برادری رو به خوبی به تصویر کشیده:
یک خانواده ی نسبتا پرجمعیت و خواهر و برادرهایی که هر کدوم اخلاق خاص خودشون رو دارن و روزهای تعطیل یا دلگیر، جمع میشن و به عنوان یک بازی یا سرگرمی با هم داستان میسازن!
گاهی حتی تقلب میکنن و شخصیت و یا قسمت اصلی داستان رو از روی کتابهای معروف کپی میکنن!
هر کدوم سعی میکنن حتی به رغم نداشتن استعداد در این زمینه، از باقی خواهر و برادرهاشون عقب نمونن و این بازی یا سرگرمی براشون حکم یک مسابقه رو پیدا میکنه که باید توش بهترین باشن!
فکر میکنم هر کسی، تو این داستان که خیلی هم خالصانه و صمیمانه روایت شده بود، حتما یه شباهت هایی با زندگی خودش پیدا میکنه!!!
خلاصه این که این کتاب اصلا مثل باقی کتابهای دازای نبود و حرف و پیام خاصی هم نداشت!
فقط میشه گفت خیلی هنرمندانه احساسات آدم رو قلقلک میداد و خوندنش برای من دلچسب بود!
اینم بگم که اسم کتاب خیلی برازنده اشه:
در باب عشق و زیبایی!!! :)))))
کتاب شامل ماجراهایی از خانواده ی یک نقاش شهیر ژاپنی به اسم شینوسوکه ئی ریه ست و از زبان نویسنده ای روایت میشه که آشنایی قدیمی ای با این خانواده و فرزندانشون داره.
خود نقاش فوت شده و پنج فرزندش به همراه مادر، مادربزرگ و پدربزرگشون زندگی میکنن..
داستان با توصیفاتی از خصوصیات ظاهری و اخلاقی پنج خواهر و برادر شروع میشه و کمی بعد راوی اشاره ای میکنه به عادت جالبی که این پنج دختر و پسر دارن:
روزهای ملال انگیز و کسالت بار، جوونها دور هم جمع میشن و شروع میکنن به ساختن یک داستان، به این صورت که معمولا کوچک ترین پسر، وظیفه ی خلق بخش اول داستان و معرفی شخصیت اصلی رو به عهده میگیره و بعد از اون باقی خواهر برادرها به ترتیب، قسمتی به این داستان اضافه میکنن و داستان رو پیش میبرن و به پایان میرسونن!!
گاهی حتی مادر، مادربزرگ و پدربزرگ هم بهشون میپیوندن و همراهیشون میکنن!
در ابتدای کتاب، بعد از معرفی اعضای خانواده ی ئی ریه، یکی از داستان هایی که در یک یکشنبه ی کسالت بار توسط خواهر و برادرها، ساخته میشه، آورده شده.
نصف دوم کتاب هم به طور کامل، به داستان دیگه ای از این خانواده اختصاص پیدا میکنه که نوشتنش طی پنج روز اول سال نو صورت گرفته..
خود نویسنده ای که راوی داستانهایی از خانواده ی ئی ریه ست یکجا یادآور میشه:
«آن داستان با توصیف پنج دختر و پسر خانواده ی ئی ریه آغاز شد و با شرح اتفاقی کوچک و بی اهمیت ادامه پیدا کرد.
بی شک کاری بی تکلف، احساساتی و پیش پا افتاده است، اما من همچنان دوستش دارم؛ البته باید اذعان کنم که بیشتر از آنکه به آن داستان علاقه داشته باشم به خانواده ای که در آن داستان توصیف شد علاقه مند هستم.
در واقع عاشق آن خانواده هستم.»
و دقیقا حس من هم به کتاب همین بود!
دازای در واقع تو این کتاب، بخشهایی از زندگی روزمره ی یک خانواده ی عادی، به خصوص روابط خواهر و برادری رو به خوبی به تصویر کشیده:
یک خانواده ی نسبتا پرجمعیت و خواهر و برادرهایی که هر کدوم اخلاق خاص خودشون رو دارن و روزهای تعطیل یا دلگیر، جمع میشن و به عنوان یک بازی یا سرگرمی با هم داستان میسازن!
گاهی حتی تقلب میکنن و شخصیت و یا قسمت اصلی داستان رو از روی کتابهای معروف کپی میکنن!
هر کدوم سعی میکنن حتی به رغم نداشتن استعداد در این زمینه، از باقی خواهر و برادرهاشون عقب نمونن و این بازی یا سرگرمی براشون حکم یک مسابقه رو پیدا میکنه که باید توش بهترین باشن!
فکر میکنم هر کسی، تو این داستان که خیلی هم خالصانه و صمیمانه روایت شده بود، حتما یه شباهت هایی با زندگی خودش پیدا میکنه!!!
خلاصه این که این کتاب اصلا مثل باقی کتابهای دازای نبود و حرف و پیام خاصی هم نداشت!
فقط میشه گفت خیلی هنرمندانه احساسات آدم رو قلقلک میداد و خوندنش برای من دلچسب بود!
اینم بگم که اسم کتاب خیلی برازنده اشه:
در باب عشق و زیبایی!!! :)))))
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آمیختن فضای خانواده با داستان مخلوقشان و سنتز این دو واقعا جالب بود.
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