幾千之夜，昨日之月

by Mitsuyo Kakuta, 角田光代, 林美琪 (Translator)

因為夜晚，我才印象深刻。
唐突地意識到自己是一個人，然後領悟到夜的力量多麼奇妙。
　　──摘自內文〈曾經，我沒有夜晚〉
　　
角田光代自年輕時代便開始大量旅行、閱讀、寫作，
就算四下眾聲喧嘩，仍不畏孤獨地自我對話，
拆解黑暗的本質，看透人世的曲折卻不妄加以評斷。
相較於小說的濃烈揪心，散文的言詞輕倩，
一重一輕的對照，呈現出作家完整的心象。
　　
二十四篇隨筆之中，夜總是突然降臨，
在異國陌生之地，照護臨終前的父母病房外，年輕時無望的單戀中……
夜中特別清明的感官，讓恐懼加倍，不安加倍，孓然的身影更顯孤單。
然而長的是黑夜，短的是人生，
穿越之後，也磨亮了透析人之善惡美醜的心眼，
回頭反望夜裡才有的非日常之景，
原來每一夜，都是自我理解的過程。

208 pages, Paperback

First published December 22, 2011

About the author

Mitsuyo Kakuta (角田光代, 1967–) set her sights on becoming a writer from an early age. Her debut novel—Kōfuku na yūgi (A Blissful Pastime), written while she was a university student—received the Kaien Prize for New Writers in 1990. She has been working continuously as an author ever since, never having had to support herself with a separate job. Three nominations for the Akutagawa Prize serve as a measure of the promise with which she was regarded from early in her career. Then, at the encouragement of an editor, she shifted toward the entertainment end of the literary spectrum, where she garnered a much broader readership with works depicting the lives of women in her generation, from their mid-thirties to forties. After publishing two brilliant novels in 2002, Ekonomikaru paresu (Economical Palace) and Kūchū teien (Hanging Garden), she went on to win the Naoki Prize for the second half of 2004 with Woman on the Other Shore (tr. 2007). Her successes continued with The Eighth Day (tr. 2010), which received the 2007 Chūō Kōron Literary Prize and was made into a televised drama series as well as a movie; the book sold more than a million copies, vaulting her into the ranks of Japan's best-selling authors. In 2012 she added to her list of honors by earning the Shibata Renzaburō Award for her novel Kami no tsuki (Paper Moon), and the Izumi Kyōka Prize for her volume of short stories Kanata no ko (The Children Beyond).

Mitsuyo Kakuta is currently working on translating the Tale of Genji into modern Japanese.
(source: BooksFromJapan.jp)

Reviews

[Ally Yang · Rating 4 out of 5]

關於「夜」的種種感想，與關連的各種面相。
「自從二十一歲開始一個人住，幾乎每個夜晚，我都是醉的。當然並非每一天，但差不多八成都是喝茫的狀態。」(195)

這讓我讀了好安心。
----------------------
世界處處，都不是自家附近，因此才要去旅行。〈世界處處，都不是自家附近〉(44)

我想，做禮拜就是每天確認自己想要的東西、想要成為的樣子，也就是確認「幸福」的內容吧。能夠每天極其自然地、極其日常地進行這項確認作業，真令人好生羨慕。〈做禮拜的男子〉(134)

「祈求我和我關心的人，明天都能同今天一樣平安順心」，長久以來，正是如此卑微的心願在支撐著人們日復一日的生活，不是嗎？〈做禮拜的男子〉(134)

正因為不是日常之事，就不必惺惺作態，正因為不是日常之事，就喝酒喝到茫吧，真的很日本。〈夜之隧道〉(147)

[kg · Rating 3 out of 5]

文化も気候も習慣もちがう国へ行くのに事前調査も何もしない、宿も予約しない…すごくのんびりした人なんだなぁとひたすら驚いた。そういう旅の仕方もあるんだね。