De rivier Sumida / Verhaal van de oostkant van de rivier

by Kafū Nagai, R.R. Schepman (Translator)

Dans la forte et subtile étude dont il fait suivre son excellente traduction du roman de Nagaï Kafû, Pierre Faure définit ainsi le sens de La Sumida : déploration d'"un Meiji qui n'a pas tenu les promesses de ses débuts et qui, en voulant greffer un corps étranger sur un tronc qu'il a déraciné, a engendré une crise profonde qui est le drame du Japon moderne ; c'est ce déchirement de l'être japonais moderne que l'on peut deviner ainsi entre les lignes de La Sumida et qui confère à ses accents une résonance si désolée". D'où l'organisation de cette histoire délicate, ténue, mais très savamment bâtie, à la japonaise. Afin d'exprimer formellement son refus d'un Meiji pour qui le bouc de Napoléon III et la discipline prussienne représentaient la civilisation, Nagaï Kafû construit son livre sur le retour cyclique des saisons (ce que reprendra plus tard Kawabata dans son Kyôto), un peu comme le poème des saisons : le haïku ou haïkaï. En outre, dans ses descriptions des paysages de Tôkyô, il évoque les estampes japonaises, celles de Hiroshige et de Kunisada, notamment, dont il était alors un des rares là-bas à priser la valeur. C'est aussi le roman de l'adolescence, de l'éveil, dans une société en crise grave, dévorée déjà par la technique, le rendement, et qui relègue au second plan la poésie, la galanterie, le théâtre de kabuki, où le héros verrait les seuls recours contre ce monde âpre et hideux. Nous lisons ici la complainte romanesque d'une civilisation moribonde, celle d'Edo que Tôkyô va supplanter sur place. Sachons incidemment admirer en Nagaï Kafû un homme qui, ayant appris en France à goûter aux libertés, refusera toujours d'entrer dans l'association des écrivains japonais, d'orientation fasciste, et souhaitera être enterré au cimetière des prostituées (satisfaction que lui refusera une famille contre laquelle il s'était d'emblée révolté). Bien que La Sumida remonte à 1909, Nagaï Kafû a donc beaucoup à nous dire aujourd'hui.

Genres: Japanese Literature, Japan, Fiction, Classics

127 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1911

About the author

Kafū Nagai (永井 荷風 Nagai Kafū, December 3, 1879 - April 30, 1959) is the pen name of Japanese author, playwright, essayist, and diarist Nagai Sōkichi (永井 壮吉). His works are noted for their depictions of life in early 20th-century Tokyo, especially among geisha, prostitutes, cabaret dancers, and other denizens of the city's lively entertainment districts.

(from Wikipedia)

Variation of names of the same author:

永井荷风

Kafū Nagai

永井 荷風

永井荷風

Reviews

[Steve]

The River Sumida

[Note: Though I read this in a French translation, there is an English translation - see below.]

Nagai Kafu (1879-1959) was in the second generation of Meiji writers behind that of Natsume Soseki. Early in his career he was a member of the Japanese Naturalist movement/school, whose adherents actually adopted only certain relatively superficial characteristics of the French naturalists to their use. Though Kafu initially claimed Zola as his master, he very soon replaced him with Maupassant. Unlike most of the Japanese Naturalists, Kafu learned some French and made a few translations into the Japanese. Of particular note, his father sent his recalcitrant son to the USA to learn how to be a businessman. Not much was learned about business during his four years there, but he did write a book of interesting short stories based on his American experience. He finally talked his father into sending him to France for a year, where he improved his command of French and had no small number of liaisons with the fairer sex (as he had done in the USA). This sojourn also resulted in a bookful of short stories.

Reluctantly back in Japan, Kafu railed against the evolution of Meiji Japan, accusing his homeland both of abandoning its history and culture and of adopting only the worst aspects of the West. At this stage in his life (around 1910) he loved the pre-Meiji Edo culture (when the capital was transferred from Kyoto to Edo early in the Meiji era, the latter was renamed Tokyo, Eastern Capital). Due to the rapid development in Tokyo, Edo Japan could only still be found in the poorer districts, in the Low City, where the artisans, artists and small merchants lived, and in some of the pleasure districts. Kafu set his Japanese fiction almost exclusively in these districts, as well as spent most of his time there, taking endless walks through the smallest streets trying to forget (then) modern Japan and enjoying the attentions of women from the lofty geisha down to the most miserable "working girls". Under parental pressure, he entered an arranged marriage but divorced shortly after his father's death. He didn't let his brief marriage interfere with his pursuits.

Sumidagawa , The River Sumida, was written in 1909, the year after Kafu's return from France. The Low City was largely concentrated around this sizable river; the Sumida and a few of its neighborhoods are really the main characters in this novel. But the primary human characters are an elderly disowned son and writer of haiku, his widowed sister and teacher of a song style commonly found in Kabuki theater, her 16 year old son and reluctant student (Kafu's birthname was Sokichi; the boy's name is Chokichi), and his first love, a 15 year old girl preparing to enter the Way of the Geisha, where she will be entertaining wealthy and powerful men. All are in straightened financial circumstances.

One can well anticipate the development of this teenage drama, particularly if one is familiar with Japanese literature; fortunately, the interest of this book does not lie there. Kafu's gift is to evoke with precision and sensitivity the appearance, feeling and mood of the Low City. One has the distinct impression of standing next to him watching the late summer sunset over the boat traffic in the Sumida River; of being in the Asakusa Kannon shrine early in the morning as the homeless are rising from the benches scattered about the grounds, and as the early worshippers carry out their purifying ablutions and hurry into the sanctuary; of eagerly craning one's neck in the crowded and malodorous balcony seats way at the back of a theater as the audience attends rapturously to a favorite song in a classic piece of Kabuki and vibrates with excitement as a well loved character makes an entrance. And, unlike so many authors, he summons not only the sights, but also the sounds and odors of the surroundings. In less than 100 pages Kafu's subtle poetry transports us to a time and place whose charms leave a lasting impression.

The River Sumida has been translated into English by the excellent Edward Seidensticker in a book entitled A Strange Tale from East of the River ,

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...

which is a collection of various stories and novellas. Be careful, for there is also a novella by Nagai with the same name. This translation is also to be found in Seidensticker's Kafu the Scribbler

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...

[Michael Finocchiaro · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nagai Kafu's invocation of Edo-period Tokyo is breathtaking and gorgeous. His prose comes off like poetry as he describes the way of life along the Sumida over which the old bridge lead to the pleasure grounds of the Geisha quarter in Tokyo. By the way, there is a spell-binding biography about Kafu and this book that I have also reviewed here on GR.

[Czarny Pies · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ce petit volume est un tour de force où le traducteur, Pierre Faure, avec 52 pages d'avant-propos et de commentaires plus une traduction d'un texte de 92 pages réussit à présenter le génie de Nagaï Kafû et d'une époque-de transition de la littérature japonaise.
Kafû faisait partie du mouvement naturaliste japonais. Pourtant, tous écrits sont imprégnés d'une grande nostalgie pour l'art et l'esthétique de l'ère Edo (1603-1868). Le lecture de "La Sumida" pense constamment aux gravures (ou estampes) de l'ère Edo et le roman est très haïkaïste.
Le Haïku est poème de trois lignes de cinq, sept et cinq syllabes qui rend les émotions ou les perceptions d'un moment passager. La nature, le cycle de saisons et le lieu poétique (meisho) sont les éléments qui domine le thématique.
Le brio de "La Sumida" est dans l'écriture. Comme, souligne Fauré l'intrigue est simple, voire banale. Chôkichi (17 ans) , le protagoniste, est un garçon de 17 ans dont le père est un haut fonctionnaire qui veut que son fils fasse la même chose. Chôkichi cependant est un âme délicate qui préfère être écrivain et qui rate ses examens. Il sait depuis trois ans que son amie d'enfance Ito (15 ans) est vouée au métier de geisha dans le quartier qui s' appelle "La Sumida". L'amour de Chôkichi pour Ito est donc impossible. Ito qui malgré le fait qu'elle plus jeune que Chôkichi a plus de maturité accepte son sort. Chôkichi, par contre, en est complètement navré. Au fur et à mesure que la date où Ito devra quitter sa maison familiale s'approche la détresse de Chôkichi s'accroit. Finalement il en tombe malade et rate le départ de son bien-aimée.
Dans une postface rédigée neuf ans après la sortie de "La Sumida" en 1909, Kafû révèle qu'il avait eu au départ l'intention d'en écrire une suite. Il s'y est finalement renoncé parce que le monde où évoluaient ses personnages n'existait plus. Les usines on remplace les maisons de geisha dans la Sumida et la société japonaise s'était radicalement transformée.
Le livre marche très bien surtout du aux efforts de Fauré qui explique très bien le contexte historique et culturelle du roman dans son avant-propos; et, plus important, réussit à créer dans sa traduction l'ambiance haïkaïste telle que l'on connait dans le monde anglo-français.

[Jan · Rating 3 out of 5]

The edition I’ve read contains the following two novella’s:
De rivier Sumida/ Sumidagawa (1909)/ The river Sumida;
Verhaal van de oostkant van de rivier/ Bokuto kidan (1937)/ A strange tale from east of the river.
This is the Dutch edition, published by Coppens & Frenks, and translated by R. R. Schepman, who wrote a good afterword.
It’s all about nostalgia about times gone by, of the pre-modern Japan, in a well-established atmosphere of melancholy, in which the setting is more important than the story line. There’s much attention for the geographical aspects of the world the protagonists wonder around in. Therefore this author’s style reminds me of the recent French Nobel prize winner; Kafu Nagai is the Modiano of Tokyo.
I thank Steve
https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/1...
for the nice introduction of Kafu Nagai in his review of this book. JM

[onomastica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interessante - il protagonista sembra non essere il protagonista della storia che viene raccontata tramite lo zio, le sue azioni lo portano a vivere una vita senza senso e non è l'attore principale nemmeno della sua storia