I Am a Cat: Chapter I, Chapter II

by Natsume Sōseki, Kan-ichi Ando (Translator)

This English version of 吾輩は猫である (Wagahai-wa neko de I Am a Cat), Chapters I and II, written by Natsume Sōseki, pseudonym of Natsume Kinnosuke (1867–1916), and translated by Kan-ichi Ando (1878-1924), was published by Hattori Shoten, Tokyo, in 1906. It "I am a cat; but as yet I have no name." Its sardonic feline narrator describes his origins, his settlement in the household of a Meiji teacher-intellectual, and the goings-on and conversations among the cats and humans about the neighborhood. Of the men he "They are miserable creatures in the eyes of a cat."

134 pages, Paperback

Published December 12, 2021

About the author

Natsume Sōseki (夏目 漱石), born Natsume Kinnosuke (夏目 金之助), was a Japanese novelist. He is best known for his novels Kokoro, Botchan, I Am a Cat and his unfinished work Light and Darkness. He was also a scholar of British literature and composer of haiku, kanshi, and fairy tales. From 1984 until 2004, his portrait appeared on the front of the Japanese 1000 yen note. In Japan, he is often considered the greatest writer in modern Japanese history. He has had a profound effect on almost all important Japanese writers since.

Reviews

[Jonah Hartley]

I recently visited the Natusme Sōseki memorial museum in Shinjuku and developed a deeper appreciation for the author's work in its context and for cats in general. Like me, Sōseki was ambivalent towards cats, until one came to his home, refused to leave, ingratiated itself into his family and eventually inspired one of his most enduring motifs. I'm aware of the controversy surrounding the translations of I Am a Cat, so I saw fit to start at the beginning with the very first by Kan-Ichi Ando, who knew Sōseki and consulted with him.

The cat's owner is a thinly veiled plant of the worst parts of Sōseki, a sickly and lazy (pseudo) intellectual, the face he shows to the outer world, whereas the nameless cat is his inner life, his observations about the fickleness and hypocrisy of human society. Through the eyes of the cat Sōseki decries his own grubbiness while at the same time saving himself with feline observations. He removes all his curiosity, honesty and creativity and transplants it into the nameless cat. Much like one of the viral cat cam videos but in this we see the truth behind all our pompousness, complacency and conceit.

[Emilia Kiss]

*3.5*
This is exactly how I imagined my cats’ inner monologue to be