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Meteliksiz Öğrenci
“Gerçekten hissetmediğim şeyleri söylemek zorundayım sürekli, yoksa hayatta kalamam.”
Yirminci yüzyıl Japon edebiyatının önde gelen yazarlarından, sıradışı hayatıyla da meşhur Osamu Dazai’den sanat, ölüm ve arzular üzerine bir kısa roman: Meteliksiz Öğrenci.
Otuzlu yaşlarda, Dazai isimli bir yazar içine hiç sinmeyen yazısını dergiye gönderdikten sonra rahatlama arayışıyla Tamagava Nehri’nin kıyısında yürüyüşe çıkar. Zihninde bir sürü düşünceyle nehri izleyen Dazai, nehirde sürüklenen bir genç görür ve onu kurtarmak için suya doğru koşar.
İkisi arasında entelektüel bir atışmaya dönüşen beklenmedik bir sohbet başlar. Liseyi terk eden bu gence kendini sevdirmeyi uman Dazai, kendini o gece çocuğun yerine bir film gösteriminde canlı anlatıcı olarak sahne almayı kabul edeceği birtakım garip durumların içinde bulacaktır.
Yirminci yüzyıl Japon edebiyatının önde gelen yazarlarından, sıradışı hayatıyla da meşhur Osamu Dazai’den sanat, ölüm ve arzular üzerine bir kısa roman: Meteliksiz Öğrenci.
Otuzlu yaşlarda, Dazai isimli bir yazar içine hiç sinmeyen yazısını dergiye gönderdikten sonra rahatlama arayışıyla Tamagava Nehri’nin kıyısında yürüyüşe çıkar. Zihninde bir sürü düşünceyle nehri izleyen Dazai, nehirde sürüklenen bir genç görür ve onu kurtarmak için suya doğru koşar.
İkisi arasında entelektüel bir atışmaya dönüşen beklenmedik bir sohbet başlar. Liseyi terk eden bu gence kendini sevdirmeyi uman Dazai, kendini o gece çocuğun yerine bir film gösteriminde canlı anlatıcı olarak sahne almayı kabul edeceği birtakım garip durumların içinde bulacaktır.
64 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1940
107 people are currently reading
2663 people want to read
About the author
Osamu Dazai
1,113 books9,354 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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March 25, 2025
‘Enjoy youth while you can!’
—François Villon
While I’m all for embracing aging with grace, sometimes it can be a bummer. As Father John Misty sings, ‘I guess time just makes fools of us all,’ and you age out of certain things while still not feeling you are valued as an “adult” or you begin to notice the younger generation reaching their prime and seeing your own as odd, tired, and needing to get out of their way. ‘Where have you gone,’ wonders Osamu Dazai, the auto-fictional narrator in The Beggar Student from Japanese author Osamu Dazai, ‘my youthful days now but a memory for me to hold each night i chase forgotten dreams all the way home.’ In his thirties, down on his luck, submitting a manuscript he feels no pride in but needs the money, Dazai feels the sands of time slipping through his fingers. A chance encounter with a weeping high school dropout turns into a debate of intellect with both trying to prove a superiority and Dazai’s comedic novella of ‘esoteric journey’s of the mind’ across existential anxieties and self-criticism spirals into a poignant examination of the human condition. As well as a front-row seat into the celebrated author’s mind during it’s wartime Tokyo setting. All the while Dazai feels as if his age continuously grows more wrinkles in the face of the youthful aspirations and self-certainty of opinions, delivered in an easily engaging style and translated here by Sam Brett. Hellishly humorous and self-deprecating, The Beggar Student is a fun and thoughtful little novel that tackles big themes in succinct insights and a small package.
‘A moment of patience is worth a thousand boasts.’
‘More like a single deed is worth a thousand words.’
Best known for his classic novel, No Longer Human, and recent brought back into popularity in the West due to his appearance as a character in Bungo Stray Dogs, Dazai writes with such wonderful sharpness and wit. Readers making a return trip to his work will recognize in The Beggar Student the fictionalized self-insert narration and bleak outlooks that come across rather comedically that characterize his works, carried forward here on the interactions between the narrator and Saeki, the school dropout. ‘People are tricky, we’re a mess,’ he quips and the chance encounter between the two becomes the scaffolding for thoughts on education and intelligence. Though, more often than not, a reflection of the aspect of intellectual posturing people put on in order to feel a sense of undo superiority. It makes for some rather funny moments that may also have you cringing from the sting of his statements.
‘You see, it's no good leaning on adjectives like clean or strong or positive. I wish I could just cut my belly open and let all of the words come spilling out. No matter if it's gibberish, as long as it's my flesh and blood doing the talking.’
There is a rather relatable sense of feeling oneself adrift and grasping at time as it seems to be passing by. There is also this sense of trying to not succumb to feelings of self-fraudulance. We have the character Kumamoto, for instance, who boastfully pretends to have read great works of fiction, or even Dazai himself who admits that his own pen name is a bit of a front or mask. Feeling so small in his youth, he’d ‘been publishing as Osamu Dazai, a name that makes me sound like a street fighter who might break your neck.’ The novella bursts into criticisms and anxieties over his own work at regular intervals, chronicling a dissatisfaction even with his own fame at the time as well as providing insight into the struggles with mental health Dazai was facing. The Beggar Student was written shortly following one of his suicide attempts and, albeit humorously written, his prose reveals a deep and dark inner battle with his own self-worth.
‘My problem is that I lack conviction!’
This self-worth flaps in the breeze of the storm of opinions the two characters exchange. Particularly as he feels he should me in a position dispensing wisdom, feeling like the older, wiser of the interlocutors, yet finds his perspective is only met with disdain and disagreement with the younger Saeki. ‘The kid found fault with everything I said,’ he bemoans, realizing such friction makes him ‘painfully aware of my own incompetence.’ And age, especially recognizing that he feels he is wasting into obscurity while Saeki can still gaze forward down the road of life from a youthful vantage point that can state ‘I’ll make something of myself, you’ll see.’ Amidst all the arguments on the value of education, we also detect a generational gap that sticks in the narrators mind and ego like a splinter. ‘We come of age in dark times, to be sure’ he thinks of his generation, ‘times in which a love of drink has been a badge of pride,’ yet his desire for a drink only gets the pushback from Saeki that you can’t ‘trust the words of a drunk.’ This, coupled with reflections of reality and truth while revealing a struggle with mental health, nudge a reading of the novella that the narrator may not be the most reliable of narrators as well.
Our narrator is quickly conned into narrating for a film to prove himself (all it took was ‘okay then, big fancy writer, think you could narrate a movie?’ to rise to the challenge and affront). This reel ‘wasted on the landscape’ that is ‘an epic with no story,’ is also a springboard for Dazai to discuss art and its value. Of course the two spar over this as well, and the narrator does deliver a few bemusing ‘kids these days’ lines like ‘we’re living in an age of jousting, not debate. I find it so depressing.’ Yet it also teases a hope for finding mutual respect in hardships and the fact that ‘kids ask a lot from grownups, but grownups ask at least as much from kids. It’s a real mess.’ And all of us will age and finally die, so why not treat each other alright while we are here.
‘A boyish heard never grows cold’
A quick read that hits with force, I quite enjoyed the romp through Dazai’s The Beggar Student. Sharp and silly yet with a real intellectual seriousness and thoughtful undercurrents, it is no surprise that Dazai has continued to be a cherished writer. There are a few unfortunate bits of toxic masculinity that occasionally appear in his works, but it remains a rather engaging and mirthful little read.
3.5/5
—François Villon
While I’m all for embracing aging with grace, sometimes it can be a bummer. As Father John Misty sings, ‘I guess time just makes fools of us all,’ and you age out of certain things while still not feeling you are valued as an “adult” or you begin to notice the younger generation reaching their prime and seeing your own as odd, tired, and needing to get out of their way. ‘Where have you gone,’ wonders Osamu Dazai, the auto-fictional narrator in The Beggar Student from Japanese author Osamu Dazai, ‘my youthful days now but a memory for me to hold each night i chase forgotten dreams all the way home.’ In his thirties, down on his luck, submitting a manuscript he feels no pride in but needs the money, Dazai feels the sands of time slipping through his fingers. A chance encounter with a weeping high school dropout turns into a debate of intellect with both trying to prove a superiority and Dazai’s comedic novella of ‘esoteric journey’s of the mind’ across existential anxieties and self-criticism spirals into a poignant examination of the human condition. As well as a front-row seat into the celebrated author’s mind during it’s wartime Tokyo setting. All the while Dazai feels as if his age continuously grows more wrinkles in the face of the youthful aspirations and self-certainty of opinions, delivered in an easily engaging style and translated here by Sam Brett. Hellishly humorous and self-deprecating, The Beggar Student is a fun and thoughtful little novel that tackles big themes in succinct insights and a small package.
‘A moment of patience is worth a thousand boasts.’
‘More like a single deed is worth a thousand words.’
Best known for his classic novel, No Longer Human, and recent brought back into popularity in the West due to his appearance as a character in Bungo Stray Dogs, Dazai writes with such wonderful sharpness and wit. Readers making a return trip to his work will recognize in The Beggar Student the fictionalized self-insert narration and bleak outlooks that come across rather comedically that characterize his works, carried forward here on the interactions between the narrator and Saeki, the school dropout. ‘People are tricky, we’re a mess,’ he quips and the chance encounter between the two becomes the scaffolding for thoughts on education and intelligence. Though, more often than not, a reflection of the aspect of intellectual posturing people put on in order to feel a sense of undo superiority. It makes for some rather funny moments that may also have you cringing from the sting of his statements.
‘You see, it's no good leaning on adjectives like clean or strong or positive. I wish I could just cut my belly open and let all of the words come spilling out. No matter if it's gibberish, as long as it's my flesh and blood doing the talking.’
There is a rather relatable sense of feeling oneself adrift and grasping at time as it seems to be passing by. There is also this sense of trying to not succumb to feelings of self-fraudulance. We have the character Kumamoto, for instance, who boastfully pretends to have read great works of fiction, or even Dazai himself who admits that his own pen name is a bit of a front or mask. Feeling so small in his youth, he’d ‘been publishing as Osamu Dazai, a name that makes me sound like a street fighter who might break your neck.’ The novella bursts into criticisms and anxieties over his own work at regular intervals, chronicling a dissatisfaction even with his own fame at the time as well as providing insight into the struggles with mental health Dazai was facing. The Beggar Student was written shortly following one of his suicide attempts and, albeit humorously written, his prose reveals a deep and dark inner battle with his own self-worth.
‘My problem is that I lack conviction!’
This self-worth flaps in the breeze of the storm of opinions the two characters exchange. Particularly as he feels he should me in a position dispensing wisdom, feeling like the older, wiser of the interlocutors, yet finds his perspective is only met with disdain and disagreement with the younger Saeki. ‘The kid found fault with everything I said,’ he bemoans, realizing such friction makes him ‘painfully aware of my own incompetence.’ And age, especially recognizing that he feels he is wasting into obscurity while Saeki can still gaze forward down the road of life from a youthful vantage point that can state ‘I’ll make something of myself, you’ll see.’ Amidst all the arguments on the value of education, we also detect a generational gap that sticks in the narrators mind and ego like a splinter. ‘We come of age in dark times, to be sure’ he thinks of his generation, ‘times in which a love of drink has been a badge of pride,’ yet his desire for a drink only gets the pushback from Saeki that you can’t ‘trust the words of a drunk.’ This, coupled with reflections of reality and truth while revealing a struggle with mental health, nudge a reading of the novella that the narrator may not be the most reliable of narrators as well.
Our narrator is quickly conned into narrating for a film to prove himself (all it took was ‘okay then, big fancy writer, think you could narrate a movie?’ to rise to the challenge and affront). This reel ‘wasted on the landscape’ that is ‘an epic with no story,’ is also a springboard for Dazai to discuss art and its value. Of course the two spar over this as well, and the narrator does deliver a few bemusing ‘kids these days’ lines like ‘we’re living in an age of jousting, not debate. I find it so depressing.’ Yet it also teases a hope for finding mutual respect in hardships and the fact that ‘kids ask a lot from grownups, but grownups ask at least as much from kids. It’s a real mess.’ And all of us will age and finally die, so why not treat each other alright while we are here.
‘A boyish heard never grows cold’
A quick read that hits with force, I quite enjoyed the romp through Dazai’s The Beggar Student. Sharp and silly yet with a real intellectual seriousness and thoughtful undercurrents, it is no surprise that Dazai has continued to be a cherished writer. There are a few unfortunate bits of toxic masculinity that occasionally appear in his works, but it remains a rather engaging and mirthful little read.
3.5/5
December 26, 2024
someone resurrect this man IMMEDIATELY. me want more movie
January 2, 2025
This guy can NOT stop writing about his "fictional" self-insert character who wants to kill himself lol
May 28, 2025
واقعا بین کتابهای تازه چاپ، به ندرت چیز دندانگیری گیر میاد. روایت ساده و خطی و نامفید دازای هم برای زیست امروزه، خودش شاهکاری بود. فکر نمیکردم کاری به این سستی از دازای بخونم. دیالوگهای تصنعی که اصلا برای مخاطب امروز نه قابل درکن نه جذاب. یک بخش عمده ابهام و پسزنندهی کتاب هم مربوط به فرهنگ و زیست روزمره ژاپن نیمه قرن بیسته که اصلا کشش نداشت.
بنظرم باید یک مدتی از ادبیات صرف نظر کنم، چون مطمئن نیستم این میزان از بدبینی الآنم بخاطر کیفیت نازل کارهاست یا من خیلی تغییر کردم.
بنظرم باید یک مدتی از ادبیات صرف نظر کنم، چون مطمئن نیستم این میزان از بدبینی الآنم بخاطر کیفیت نازل کارهاست یا من خیلی تغییر کردم.
January 4, 2025
[Read my in-depth thoughts here: https://whatafireads.substack.com/p/t...]
Dazai did it again, and I think, anything written by him is something that I will like.
The thing about his books, as desolate and helpless we would feel after reading it, there is always the mere fact that at the end of the day, he had tried to live as a human - or the version of a human that he understands and deems worthy.
The beggar student was published a few years before his death but was written a few years after his first attempt of suicide, in which he enrolled in a university and later quit, and to me, nothing in his books are a coincidence, especially the books written in the dawn of his suicide. Whilst we see a more humorous side of Dazai in this book, the feeling that it gave me was the same as when reading No Longer Human. It is despondent. It is bleak. It felt that he was grasping for things that he wish to gain but ended up not being able to achieve it.
Books by these authors will be more understandable when you understand the story behind its writing. The chronology of his death, the state of mind that he wrote, of the mockery of an author in the book who happens to carry the same name as him.
4.5🌟
Dazai did it again, and I think, anything written by him is something that I will like.
The thing about his books, as desolate and helpless we would feel after reading it, there is always the mere fact that at the end of the day, he had tried to live as a human - or the version of a human that he understands and deems worthy.
The beggar student was published a few years before his death but was written a few years after his first attempt of suicide, in which he enrolled in a university and later quit, and to me, nothing in his books are a coincidence, especially the books written in the dawn of his suicide. Whilst we see a more humorous side of Dazai in this book, the feeling that it gave me was the same as when reading No Longer Human. It is despondent. It is bleak. It felt that he was grasping for things that he wish to gain but ended up not being able to achieve it.
Books by these authors will be more understandable when you understand the story behind its writing. The chronology of his death, the state of mind that he wrote, of the mockery of an author in the book who happens to carry the same name as him.
'You see, it's no good leaning on adjectives like clean or strong or positive. I wish I could just cut my belly open and let all of the words come spilling out. No matter if it's gibberish, as long as it's my flesh and blood doing the talking.'
4.5🌟
January 4, 2025
'You see, it's no good leaning on adjectives like clean or strong or positive. I wish I could just cut my belly open and let all of the words come spilling out. No matter if it's gibberish, as long as it's my flesh and blood doing the talking.'
Osamu Dazai wrote No Longer Human which I have not read but also this, which I have, on shift might I add. I didn’t expect much from this tiny book and was so joyously surprised by the sheer quality of wit and irony.
It opens with an author lamenting how horrendous everything is. Likely thing for an author to be doing. He’s just submitted a manuscript he is convinced is shit; this is Osamu Dazai, the protagonist and writer of this novella.
On his pensive walk he comes across a schoolboy who he believes is drowning, but is not actually, and immediately he is humbled by brazen attitude of the boy and determines that he must teach him a lesson. He spends the rest of the story alternating between playing sage lecturer and engaging in the most immature game of one upmanship.
The boys, or boy and man acting like a boy, set off on a strange day together. The setting is so lively; Japanese tea houses and canteens, wintery fields and streets.
There is a self-depreciation to this that allows the heavier moments to land. An existentialism that can only really be expressed through humour. And a wonderful twist... I read afterwards about how Dazai committed suicide with his wife by drowning in the canal mentioned in this book. And although this was a delightful read, there is certainly a darkness lurking just out of sight.
Osamu Dazai wrote No Longer Human which I have not read but also this, which I have, on shift might I add. I didn’t expect much from this tiny book and was so joyously surprised by the sheer quality of wit and irony.
It opens with an author lamenting how horrendous everything is. Likely thing for an author to be doing. He’s just submitted a manuscript he is convinced is shit; this is Osamu Dazai, the protagonist and writer of this novella.
On his pensive walk he comes across a schoolboy who he believes is drowning, but is not actually, and immediately he is humbled by brazen attitude of the boy and determines that he must teach him a lesson. He spends the rest of the story alternating between playing sage lecturer and engaging in the most immature game of one upmanship.
The boys, or boy and man acting like a boy, set off on a strange day together. The setting is so lively; Japanese tea houses and canteens, wintery fields and streets.
There is a self-depreciation to this that allows the heavier moments to land. An existentialism that can only really be expressed through humour. And a wonderful twist... I read afterwards about how Dazai committed suicide with his wife by drowning in the canal mentioned in this book. And although this was a delightful read, there is certainly a darkness lurking just out of sight.
January 30, 2025
“people are tricky. we're a mess." this was a very quick, silly, and light read, yet still with somewhat subtle but clear desolation, gloom or melancholy to it that very much seeded it’s place into my mind and will probably stay there for a while. this felt like the book equivalent to a liminal space for me. dazai’s books never fail to leave me staring at my wall lost in thought. i am very fond of his narration, and i must say it was quite entertaining and i found myself giggling a few times as well.
growing up can entail the development of self-depreciation, self-loathing, self-pity, and wallowing, as portrayed through our main character. hence, there can be a multitude of times where we long to go back to our childhood, despite our eagerness to grow up. and i felt that, despite the fact that i’m a teenager. perhaps not as much as other people, but still to a decent extent. we all have or had dreams, and evidently as we grow older there can be times of feeling of inadequacy and fear that we aren’t achieviving them even when there was a substantial effort put in, which i can easily resonate with. and then i end up questioning if it was all frivolous. this was a lovely book with a setting which felt oddly comforting to me, and we see him have a strange, goofy, and somewhat enjoyable day full of bickering with his teenage companions, provoking a sense of nostalgia and thought.
normally i don’t like the “it was all a dream” ending, but it felt very fitting for this story. maybe everything that happened was just a figment of his imagination? genuinely it felt exactly like me waking up from a dream which i desperately wished it was real (being a kid again). and maybe this wasn’t the best interpretation of the book, but it’s what i pulled.
“where have you gone, my youthful days now but a memory for me to hold each night i chase forgotten dreams
all the way home”
yeah, i wrote this review in the tone of an elderly woman. what about it?
growing up can entail the development of self-depreciation, self-loathing, self-pity, and wallowing, as portrayed through our main character. hence, there can be a multitude of times where we long to go back to our childhood, despite our eagerness to grow up. and i felt that, despite the fact that i’m a teenager. perhaps not as much as other people, but still to a decent extent. we all have or had dreams, and evidently as we grow older there can be times of feeling of inadequacy and fear that we aren’t achieviving them even when there was a substantial effort put in, which i can easily resonate with. and then i end up questioning if it was all frivolous. this was a lovely book with a setting which felt oddly comforting to me, and we see him have a strange, goofy, and somewhat enjoyable day full of bickering with his teenage companions, provoking a sense of nostalgia and thought.
normally i don’t like the “it was all a dream” ending, but it felt very fitting for this story. maybe everything that happened was just a figment of his imagination? genuinely it felt exactly like me waking up from a dream which i desperately wished it was real (being a kid again). and maybe this wasn’t the best interpretation of the book, but it’s what i pulled.
“where have you gone, my youthful days now but a memory for me to hold each night i chase forgotten dreams
all the way home”
yeah, i wrote this review in the tone of an elderly woman. what about it?
Read
September 28, 2025a short novella read in one sitting, mainly dealing with a random friendship between two men - a writer in his 30s and a teenager. lots of back and forth dialogue that conveys the shifting power dynamics of their conversations and the difficulties of growing older for both of them. i did crave a bit more depth from it and i dont think it’ll have staying power in my memory, but it was mostly enjoyable
December 16, 2024
The Typical Dazai charmer of a book. He never fails me.
March 18, 2025
3،5/⭐️
يشحذ أوسامو دازاي قلمه ويكتب روائع؛ هنا قصة أخرى بسيطة وطريفة وسريعة.
أحب دازاي؛ وأحزن كلما قرأت له، أحزن على حياته وشبابه ومعاناته النفسية ووفاته .
وحزينة اليوم لأني اقتربت من إنهاء كل الأعمال المترجمة له. تبقى لي عمل وحيد ولن أقرؤه قريبًا وسأظل على أمل أن تصدر ترجمات جديدة لأعماله بل تظل تتدفق كمعين لا ينضب، على الأقل ألا ينضب المعين قريبًا.
يشحذ أوسامو دازاي قلمه ويكتب روائع؛ هنا قصة أخرى بسيطة وطريفة وسريعة.
أحب دازاي؛ وأحزن كلما قرأت له، أحزن على حياته وشبابه ومعاناته النفسية ووفاته .
وحزينة اليوم لأني اقتربت من إنهاء كل الأعمال المترجمة له. تبقى لي عمل وحيد ولن أقرؤه قريبًا وسأظل على أمل أن تصدر ترجمات جديدة لأعماله بل تظل تتدفق كمعين لا ينضب، على الأقل ألا ينضب المعين قريبًا.
February 18, 2025
"Not even the wisest reader knows the anguish of the writer who has sent a truly awful piece of writing to a magazine in order to survive. Here goes nothing, I told myself, pushing that heavy envelope into the mailbox. It hit the bottom with a thunk. And that was that. Another crummy story. On the surface, it pretends to be a mirror to my soul. Although I know as well as anyone the slimy worms of compromise are wriggling in the muck at the bottom. It's a work in which the work is far from done. […] It makes me so ashamed I want to scream and run around in circles." (3)Thus opens Osamu Dazai's The Beggar Student in this fresh new translation by Sam Bett. The story is a romp—perhaps not really a five-star story compared to his greatest works, but I'm going to give it five stars all the same, if only to encourage New Directions Publishing Corporation to commission more Dazai translations.
January 31, 2025
A short melancholic read with Dazai; a story on one’s disillusionment, of identity, alienation and solitude following a bizarre encounter of a 30ish writer (said to be loosely crafted based on the author as the character having Dazai as his penname) with a high-school dropout boy and how their sudden friendship turned into an intellectual debate about life and one’s way of living. Too chaotic in the execution (scenes of bickerings, insults and delinquent moves) but I loved that sense of despair and emotional weight in its tone as well how Dazai explored that gaze of societal pressure and expectations throughout the progress.
Having that usual element of the author’s self-deprecating writing which crafted through both of its main characters; too nuisance on Saeki’s part and depressing much for Dazai. Loved Kumamoto (he sounds so naive) and how their whole conversations mainly revolved towards literature, academic talks and highlighting much on one’s vulnerability, inner turmoil and flaws. I liked that psycho mess part on the last chapter and how surreal the narrative go blurring the reality for me. Bit perplexed on the ending yet enthralled me on how it referred back to those earlier rants and frustration Dazai felt about his manuscript and life as a whole.
**review copy courtesy of Pansing Distribution, thank you!
Having that usual element of the author’s self-deprecating writing which crafted through both of its main characters; too nuisance on Saeki’s part and depressing much for Dazai. Loved Kumamoto (he sounds so naive) and how their whole conversations mainly revolved towards literature, academic talks and highlighting much on one’s vulnerability, inner turmoil and flaws. I liked that psycho mess part on the last chapter and how surreal the narrative go blurring the reality for me. Bit perplexed on the ending yet enthralled me on how it referred back to those earlier rants and frustration Dazai felt about his manuscript and life as a whole.
**review copy courtesy of Pansing Distribution, thank you!
November 26, 2024
Kısa bir roman. Akıcı, derin, ilginç. Yazarın tarzından farklı bir metin.
Çok beğendim.
Çok beğendim.
September 18, 2025
The Beggar Student is only 54 pages long, so at least it didn’t overstay its welcome. I read it on a bus ride to work, and it did the job of keeping me entertained for that short stretch of time. Dazai’s prose is always easy enough to slip into, and the premise had potential—but honestly, the story never hit me the way I hoped.
It felt more like a sketch than a fully fleshed-out piece. A handful of interesting ideas flickered here and there, but nothing stuck after I put the book down. By the time I reached the last page, I wasn’t sure if I’d actually read a story or just a draft of one.
So yes, a quick, easy read—but one that left me shrugging rather than stirred.
It felt more like a sketch than a fully fleshed-out piece. A handful of interesting ideas flickered here and there, but nothing stuck after I put the book down. By the time I reached the last page, I wasn’t sure if I’d actually read a story or just a draft of one.
So yes, a quick, easy read—but one that left me shrugging rather than stirred.
November 24, 2025
Mislim da niko u istoriji književnosti nije o sebi pisao toliko negativno i nipodaštavajuće kao Dazai. Na trenutak mi ga bude žao ali onda shvatim da je nekako morao da se sabere. Just pull yourself together, man - ne mora svaki minorni problem da se završi željom da skočiš u reku. I onda shvatiš kako je završio pa ti ga ipak bude žao. Druga priča apsolutno najslabiji Dazai do sada.
February 5, 2025
“You act like I’m uneducated, like I’m some kind of an imbecile, but at least I’m doing something with my life. And even if I am an uneducated imbecile, I’m still much better off than you. You’re in no position to look down on me. After all this unjust abuse, I have no choice but to retaliate.”
Dazai was a cynic. He was the harshest and the biggest critic of himself to the point you pitied him so much just by reading his stories. The Beggar Student much like No Longer Human/Ningen Shikaku and Flowers of Buffoonery recounts some truth of Dazai's personal struggles & past failed suicidal attempts written in a confessionary of a troubled mind author disguised as a fictionalized tale. Opening up with a self deprecation of himself sending a manuscript to his editor, his bemoaning of the terrible quality of his works and how ashamed he was of the manuscript he submitted so unworthy & awful that he kept belittling himself showcased how low self esteem Dazai was. Unable to bear the shame of his rushed manuscript, he unexpectedly encounter a young student almost drowning in the river and began a back and forth conversations of student life, education, the literature references of foreign novels and their influences, the critique on literary figures & their portrayal in society ended in a chaotic drunken confession and bizarre dreamlike experiences happening in one day.
In a span of 96 pages, this novella not only let you wander into the narrator a.k.a Dazai's mind on how he viewed himself as both a writer and a person (in my own assumption & interpretation from previous works I have read from him), you are pulled into recognizing the bleakness & sombre thoughts of death & solitude spoken by the narrator. Once again, I'm amazed by how Dazai managed to convey his deepest darkest feelings across in a short novella that you cannot help but pity the entire thing but also it was done in his signature dark humor and boorish as a way to camouflage what he may be feeling
Dazai was a cynic. He was the harshest and the biggest critic of himself to the point you pitied him so much just by reading his stories. The Beggar Student much like No Longer Human/Ningen Shikaku and Flowers of Buffoonery recounts some truth of Dazai's personal struggles & past failed suicidal attempts written in a confessionary of a troubled mind author disguised as a fictionalized tale. Opening up with a self deprecation of himself sending a manuscript to his editor, his bemoaning of the terrible quality of his works and how ashamed he was of the manuscript he submitted so unworthy & awful that he kept belittling himself showcased how low self esteem Dazai was. Unable to bear the shame of his rushed manuscript, he unexpectedly encounter a young student almost drowning in the river and began a back and forth conversations of student life, education, the literature references of foreign novels and their influences, the critique on literary figures & their portrayal in society ended in a chaotic drunken confession and bizarre dreamlike experiences happening in one day.
In a span of 96 pages, this novella not only let you wander into the narrator a.k.a Dazai's mind on how he viewed himself as both a writer and a person (in my own assumption & interpretation from previous works I have read from him), you are pulled into recognizing the bleakness & sombre thoughts of death & solitude spoken by the narrator. Once again, I'm amazed by how Dazai managed to convey his deepest darkest feelings across in a short novella that you cannot help but pity the entire thing but also it was done in his signature dark humor and boorish as a way to camouflage what he may be feeling
December 16, 2024
This is a wonderful translation! While elements of his sullen, despondent style are still there, The Beggar Student showcases Dazai Osamu's whimsical and humorous writing. It's hard to tell if Dazai is taking himself and his characters too seriously or not at all, or maybe both, but that just adds to the overall charm. This whirlwind of a story had me laughing out loud, taking time to ponder, and wiping away tears. Quite a feat for a book that is less than 100 pages.
(There is another translation of this story out there titled "Derelict Student" that is terrible in comparison. That translation is cheaper, but don't waste your money. Definitely buy this one instead.)
Also, here are a few fun facts if anyone is interested:
1. In The Beggar Student, Dazai talks about not caring about stylish clothing. However, in his short story "No Kidding" (Zakyō ni arazu), he says, "It was an evening in mid-September. My white yukata was already out of season, and I felt horribly conspicuous, as if I glowed in the dark, and so full of sorrow I no longer wanted to live." Dazai wrote another story titled "On the Question of Apparel" (Fukusō ni tsuite) where he goes into more detail about his thoughts on clothing.
2. Dazai claims to not know how to swim in The Beggar Student, but in "Eight Views of Tokyo" (Tōkyō Hakkei), he wrote, "It was difficult to die in the sea, since I could swim. I chose hanging, which, I had heard, was certain. But it was another miserable failure. I came back to consciousness. Maybe my neck was abnormally thick."
3. In The Beggar Student, Dazai compares one of the students appearances to the actor American Harold Lloyd. This is the same actor Dazai compares his protagonist Yozo to in No Longer Human.
4. The Tamagawa Canal near Dazai's house in Mitaka is the canal he drowned in eight years later in 1948.
(There is another translation of this story out there titled "Derelict Student" that is terrible in comparison. That translation is cheaper, but don't waste your money. Definitely buy this one instead.)
Also, here are a few fun facts if anyone is interested:
1. In The Beggar Student, Dazai talks about not caring about stylish clothing. However, in his short story "No Kidding" (Zakyō ni arazu), he says, "It was an evening in mid-September. My white yukata was already out of season, and I felt horribly conspicuous, as if I glowed in the dark, and so full of sorrow I no longer wanted to live." Dazai wrote another story titled "On the Question of Apparel" (Fukusō ni tsuite) where he goes into more detail about his thoughts on clothing.
2. Dazai claims to not know how to swim in The Beggar Student, but in "Eight Views of Tokyo" (Tōkyō Hakkei), he wrote, "It was difficult to die in the sea, since I could swim. I chose hanging, which, I had heard, was certain. But it was another miserable failure. I came back to consciousness. Maybe my neck was abnormally thick."
3. In The Beggar Student, Dazai compares one of the students appearances to the actor American Harold Lloyd. This is the same actor Dazai compares his protagonist Yozo to in No Longer Human.
4. The Tamagawa Canal near Dazai's house in Mitaka is the canal he drowned in eight years later in 1948.
November 20, 2025
this was so funny
This novella felt incredibly human. This is my first Dazai book and it was so strangely entertaining. I enjoyed the emotionality of all the characters—how insecure and pompous they managed to be in such few pages. Looking forward to reading more of Dazai’s books in the future.
This novella felt incredibly human. This is my first Dazai book and it was so strangely entertaining. I enjoyed the emotionality of all the characters—how insecure and pompous they managed to be in such few pages. Looking forward to reading more of Dazai’s books in the future.
January 23, 2025
"I wish I could just cut my belly open and let all of the words come spilling out. No matter if it's gibberish, as long as it's my flesh and blood doing the talking."
3.5? A fun tale of camaraderie, persistent youth, rejuvenation, and self-grace.
December 16, 2024
a lot lighter and airier then some of dazais books but still has a lot of elements that tend to be more depressing. definitely an amazing read
Read
January 2, 2025mentioning Bungo Stray Dogs in the synopsis is crazy that’s obviously not why I read it *I trip and pictures of manga Dazai start spilling out of my wallet* THOSE AREN’T MINE
October 22, 2025
❞أنت تخلط بين يوم سيء وحياة سيئة.❝
❞ في المرة القادمة التي تشعر فيها بالإحباط، التف ببطانية في غرفتك المستأجرة وافتح كتابًا جيدًا. ما أروعها من طريقة لقضاء شبابك. ❝
❞ هذا الطفل كان يجد عيبًا في كل ما أقوله. كان هناك وقت كنت فيه مثله تمامًا. وقت كانت فيه حقيقة جديدة أو مهارة تحرق ثقبًا في دماغي، وأحتاج أن أتباهى بها، وإلا سينتهي العالم. ❝
❞ لسبب ما، أواجه صعوبة كبيرة في استضافة الضيوف في المنزل. أنا قلق جدًا لأتواصل. هؤلاء الزوار أذكياء ومتعلمون لدرجة أن محادثاتهم العابرة يمكن نشرها كأطروحة عن الوجود، بينما أنا، دوّارة الطقس الصدئة، لا أستطيع سوى إصدار سلسلة من الأنّات التافهة غير الأنيقة، أتلوى في مقعدي، وألقي بردود فعل نمطية مثل "واو"، والتي تسبب ضررًا أكثر من النفع. ❝
❞ عليك أن تجرب هذا في وقت ما، أيها القارئ العزيز. اجلس على أريكة في مقهى أو بار، مواجهًا المدفأة بجانب زوجتك -هذا طبعًا إذا كنت متزوج- بحيث تكونان أنت وهي تحدقان في النيران، وتحدث كما لو كنت تتحدث إلى النار؛ أعدك، حتى ضد أضعف العقول، ستتمكن من الحفاظ على محادثة حية لساعات طويلة. لكن انتبه، أيها القارئ: لا تنظر إلى عيني الشخص الآخر، ولو لمرة واحدة. ❝
❞ دازاي" مجرد اسم مستعار. لقد وُلدت تاكيو كيمورا. حين كنتُ صغيرًا، وجدت الاسم محرجًا للغاية، لذا على الرغم من كوني نحيفًا، كنت أنشر باسم أوسامو دازاي، اسم يجعلني أبدو كشخص قد يكسر رقبتك في الشارع. وهو أمر رائع… لكن كما ترون، إذا وُضعت في موقف صعب، غالبًا ما أنفجر مُصرحًا بالاسم القديم الذي أطلقته عليّ عائلتي. ❝
❞ في المرة القادمة التي تشعر فيها بالإحباط، التف ببطانية في غرفتك المستأجرة وافتح كتابًا جيدًا. ما أروعها من طريقة لقضاء شبابك. ❝
❞ هذا الطفل كان يجد عيبًا في كل ما أقوله. كان هناك وقت كنت فيه مثله تمامًا. وقت كانت فيه حقيقة جديدة أو مهارة تحرق ثقبًا في دماغي، وأحتاج أن أتباهى بها، وإلا سينتهي العالم. ❝
❞ لسبب ما، أواجه صعوبة كبيرة في استضافة الضيوف في المنزل. أنا قلق جدًا لأتواصل. هؤلاء الزوار أذكياء ومتعلمون لدرجة أن محادثاتهم العابرة يمكن نشرها كأطروحة عن الوجود، بينما أنا، دوّارة الطقس الصدئة، لا أستطيع سوى إصدار سلسلة من الأنّات التافهة غير الأنيقة، أتلوى في مقعدي، وألقي بردود فعل نمطية مثل "واو"، والتي تسبب ضررًا أكثر من النفع. ❝
❞ عليك أن تجرب هذا في وقت ما، أيها القارئ العزيز. اجلس على أريكة في مقهى أو بار، مواجهًا المدفأة بجانب زوجتك -هذا طبعًا إذا كنت متزوج- بحيث تكونان أنت وهي تحدقان في النيران، وتحدث كما لو كنت تتحدث إلى النار؛ أعدك، حتى ضد أضعف العقول، ستتمكن من الحفاظ على محادثة حية لساعات طويلة. لكن انتبه، أيها القارئ: لا تنظر إلى عيني الشخص الآخر، ولو لمرة واحدة. ❝
❞ دازاي" مجرد اسم مستعار. لقد وُلدت تاكيو كيمورا. حين كنتُ صغيرًا، وجدت الاسم محرجًا للغاية، لذا على الرغم من كوني نحيفًا، كنت أنشر باسم أوسامو دازاي، اسم يجعلني أبدو كشخص قد يكسر رقبتك في الشارع. وهو أمر رائع… لكن كما ترون، إذا وُضعت في موقف صعب، غالبًا ما أنفجر مُصرحًا بالاسم القديم الذي أطلقته عليّ عائلتي. ❝
March 16, 2025
Well damn. It’s not what I wanted or expected from this book but it’s certainly not bad. The last pages really make the book worth reading and gives you something to think about.
April 6, 2025
yok anlaşamıyorum bu adamla
May 5, 2025
Nuvela „Studentul cerșetor” e una dintre lucrările mai puțin cunoscute ale lui Osamu Dazai. În aceasta urmărim povestea unui tânăr student care provine dintr-o familie nobilă, însă care a decăzut și încearcă din răsputeri să păstreze aparențele în fața societății.
Nuvela este una semi-autobiografică, Dazai însuși făcând parte dintr-o familie înstărită care l-a dezmoștenit formal din cauza vieții și alegerilor autodestructive. Acesta este un personaj activ, care scrie un manuscris jalnic, de care îi este rușine, și i-l trimite editorului său. Ajuns în cel mai de jos punct al vieții, Dazai întâlnește acest student care se bălăcește despuiat în „lacul mâncător de oameni”.
„Studentul cerșetor” e o critică adusă claselor sociale și decăderii aristocrației.
Protagonistul oscilează între adevărata sa persoană și persoana care ar trebui să fie pentru a păstra aparențele.
Recunosc că e una dintre scrierile lui Dazai care nu-mi plac în mod deosebit și s-a încheiat exact așa cum îmi încheiam și eu compunerile în școala generală, crezând că am făcut o treabă excelentă (not really).
Cu toate acestea, citindu-l pe Osamu Dazai, descoperi găurile negre din societatea japoneză care, din păcate, se află acolo și în ziua de astăzi. Dazai expune problemele societății japoneze într-un mod ironic și sarcastic și are un stil aparte de a-și transpune trăirile în scrieri care dăinuie de zeci de ani și vorbesc despre realitățile zilelor lui și ale noastre. Îl voi recomanda mereu, însă, disclaimer: take it with a grain of salt.
Nuvela este una semi-autobiografică, Dazai însuși făcând parte dintr-o familie înstărită care l-a dezmoștenit formal din cauza vieții și alegerilor autodestructive. Acesta este un personaj activ, care scrie un manuscris jalnic, de care îi este rușine, și i-l trimite editorului său. Ajuns în cel mai de jos punct al vieții, Dazai întâlnește acest student care se bălăcește despuiat în „lacul mâncător de oameni”.
„Studentul cerșetor” e o critică adusă claselor sociale și decăderii aristocrației.
Protagonistul oscilează între adevărata sa persoană și persoana care ar trebui să fie pentru a păstra aparențele.
Recunosc că e una dintre scrierile lui Dazai care nu-mi plac în mod deosebit și s-a încheiat exact așa cum îmi încheiam și eu compunerile în școala generală, crezând că am făcut o treabă excelentă (not really).
Cu toate acestea, citindu-l pe Osamu Dazai, descoperi găurile negre din societatea japoneză care, din păcate, se află acolo și în ziua de astăzi. Dazai expune problemele societății japoneze într-un mod ironic și sarcastic și are un stil aparte de a-și transpune trăirile în scrieri care dăinuie de zeci de ani și vorbesc despre realitățile zilelor lui și ale noastre. Îl voi recomanda mereu, însă, disclaimer: take it with a grain of salt.
December 22, 2024
What a delightful little read.
March 12, 2025
Osamu Dazai is one of my favorite authors, and I enjoyed this. I think there is a perfect balance of humor and honesty, even in some wild events. There is something about Dazai's humor that I think perfectly translated into English from Japanese and from the page to my mind that makes me really chuckle when he cracks jokes. The opening was really funny to me, and I think he balances that humor with the grim outlook on life perfectly, which really makes you connect with him as an author on multiple levels and shows different sides of him.
November 27, 2024
I was able to get a copy of this a bit earlier than the store release date through BN pre-orders. This is a short novella with a really cool plot twist at the very end. When I was about halfway done, I noticed that the mood and tone of this book felt different from Dazai’s other works. Rather than it being dark, hopeless, or despairing this book offers a good amount of mordant humor mixed with bright, lively settings. However, the conclusion offers some of those same looming concerns about human frailty and mortality. For the most part a light, funny read that will remind you a bit of No Longer Human only through the implications of its conclusion. Highly recommend!
November 24, 2024
This is a lovely book to read! I really enjoyed the entertaining debates and the insult remarks between Dazai and the student. Even though it's a short story, it was definitely worth the read!
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