Botchan 1732 Studios

Japanese · Botchan

七

Chapter 7

296 sentences · 18 notes

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  1. 1

    I quit my lodgings that very night.

    はas forは · particleparticle marking おれ (implied)
    即夜that very night即夜 · adverbmodifies 引き
    下宿lodgings下宿 · noundirect object of 引き
    を(object)を · particleparticle marking 下宿
    引きcleared引く · verbadverbial clause on 払っ
    払っout払う · verbmain verb of the sentence
    た(past)た · auxiliary verbauxiliary of 払っ

  2. When I got back and started packing my things, the landlady asked whether something had displeased me, and said that if there was anything I was angry about, she'd fix it if I just told her.

  3. It floored me.

  4. Why is the world so full of people who can't get to the point?

  5. I couldn't tell whether she wanted me out or wanted me to stay.

  6. Sheer lunacy.

  7. It would shame an Edokko to pick a fight with someone like that, so I fetched a rickshaw man and cleared out at once.

  8. 2

    I'd walked out, all right, but I had nowhere in mind to go.

  9. The rickshaw man asked where to, so I told him to shut up and follow — he'd find out soon enough — and set off at a brisk clip.

  10. It was such a bother that I thought of just going to the Yamashiroya, but I'd only have to leave there again too, so it came to the same trouble either way.

  11. Walking along like this, I figured I'd spot some house with a lodgings sign or the like.

  12. Whichever one I found, I decided, that would be the lodging heaven had ordained for me.

  13. So thinking, I wandered round and round through quiet, likely-looking neighborhoods, until at last I came out at Kajiya-chō.

  14. This was a district of samurai-family houses, not the sort of street that had lodging houses, so I thought of turning back toward somewhere livelier, when a good idea suddenly struck me.

  15. Uranari, whom I respected, lived right in this neighborhood.

  16. Since he was a local, with a family estate handed down from his ancestors, he was bound to know his way around these parts.

  17. If I called on him and asked, he might well point me to a decent lodging.

  18. Luckily I'd called on him once before and already knew my way there, so I wouldn't have the bother of hunting for the place.

  19. Guessing more or less that this must be the house, I called out "Excuse me, excuse me" a couple of times, and an old man of about fifty came out from within with an old-fashioned paper taper lit.

  20. I don't dislike young women, but the sight of an old person always stirs some fond feeling in me.

  21. It's probably because I'm so fond of Kiyo that her spirit seems to have settled into every old woman I meet.

  22. This, I guessed, would most likely be Uranari's mother.

  23. She was a dignified woman with her hair cut short in the old style, and she looked very much like Uranari.

  24. She urged me to come in and sit, but I said I only wanted a quick word, and had the master called out to the entrance, where I explained the whole business and asked if he knew of anywhere.

  25. Uranari said that must be a real predicament, and thought it over a while, then told me there was an old couple named Hagino living alone down this back street, who'd once asked him to find them a trustworthy tenant, since it was a waste to leave a room sitting empty.

  26. He couldn't say whether they'd still rent it out, but he kindly offered to come along and ask, and took me there himself.

  27. 3

    From that very night I became a lodger in the Hagino house.

  28. What astonished me was that the moment I cleared out of my room at the Ikagin's, Toady moved right in the very next day, cool as you please, and took over the very room I'd had.

  29. Even I was floored by that.

  30. The world, it seems, is full of nothing but frauds, all of them putting one over on each other.

  31. It disgusted me.

  32. 4

    If the world is like this, then unless I toughen up and play the same game myself, I'll never manage to get by.

  33. If it's really come to the point where you can't earn your three meals without skimming a cut off a pickpocket's takings, then living itself is something to think twice about.

  34. But then, hanging myself while I'm fit and healthy would shame my ancestors, on top of looking bad to the world.

  35. Thinking it over, instead of going into the Physics School and learning a useless skill like mathematics, I'd have done better to take my six hundred yen and start up a dairy.

  36. That way Kiyo wouldn't have had to leave my side, and I wouldn't have to sit out here worrying about the old woman from so far away.

  37. While we were living together I didn't think much of it, but now that I've come out here to the country, I can see Kiyo really is a good soul.

  38. You could search all Japan and rarely find another woman with a heart as good as hers.

  39. She had a bit of a cold when I set out — I wonder how the old woman's doing by now.

  40. She must have been delighted to get my last letter.

  41. Still, a reply ought to be arriving by now — I spent two or three days doing nothing but thinking things like this.

  42. 5

    Since it was on my mind, I'd ask the old landlady now and then whether a letter had come from Tokyo, but every time I asked she'd give me a sympathetic look and say nothing had come.

  43. This couple, unlike the Ikagins, were both refined, being originally of samurai stock.

  44. The old man singing Noh chants in that odd voice of an evening was a trial, but at least he didn't keep barging in for no reason with "Shall I bring you some tea?" the way the Ikagin did, which was a great relief.

  45. The old woman would come to my room now and then and chat about all sorts of things.

  46. She'd ask me things like why hadn't I brought my wife along with me.

  47. Do I look like I have a wife?

  48. I told her, poor thing that I am, I'm only twenty-four, but she opened with "Now at twenty-four it's only natural to have a wife," and went on to rattle off half a dozen examples — how so-and-so took a bride at twenty, how such-and-such a man already had two children by twenty-two — and I was quite overwhelmed by her argument.

  49. So I said, mimicking the local dialect, "Well then, seeing as I'm twenty-four too, won't you find me a bride?" and the old woman asked, quite in earnest, whether I really meant it.

  50. 6

    "Really and truly — I want a wife so badly I can't stand it."

  51. 7

    "I daresay you would, sir.

  52. Everyone's like that when they're young."

  53. That reply left me so mortified I couldn't answer.

  54. 8

    "But surely, sir, you must already have a wife.

  55. I've got you figured out, I have."

  56. 9

    "My, what an eye you've got.

  57. How ever did you figure that out?"

  58. 10

    "What do you mean, how?

  59. Every day you're pining for a letter, asking has one come from Tokyo, has one come — aren't you now, sir?"

  60. 11

    "Well, that's a shock.

  61. What a keen eye you've got."

  62. 12

    "I hit the mark, didn't I, sir."

  63. 13

    "I suppose you did.

  64. Maybe you hit it right on the nose."

  65. 14

    "But girls nowadays aren't like they used to be — you can't let your guard down, so you'd best be careful, sir."

  66. 15

    "What's that supposed to mean — is my wife off in Tokyo carrying on with some other man?"

  67. 16

    "No, no, your wife is trustworthy enough, but…"

  68. 17

    "Well, that's a relief.

  69. Then what am I supposed to be careful about?"

  70. 18

    "Yours is trustworthy — yours is trustworthy, but —"

  71. 19

    "And who exactly is untrustworthy, then?"

  72. 20

    "There's plenty of them around here.

  73. Sir, do you know the young Miss Toyama?"

  74. 21

    "No, I don't know her."

  75. 22

    "You don't know her yet.

  76. She's the prettiest girl around these parts, sir.

  77. She's such a beauty that all the teachers at the school go around calling her Madonna, Madonna.

  78. Haven't you heard of her yet, sir?"

  79. 23

    "Hm, Madonna, is it.

  80. I took it for a geisha's stage name."

  81. 24

    "No, no, sir.

  82. 'Madonna' is a foreign word, I believe, that means a beauty."

  83. 25

    "Might well be.

  84. That surprises me."

  85. 26

    "It was most likely the drawing teacher who gave her that name, sir."

  86. 27

    "Was it Toady who thought it up?"

  87. 28

    "No, it was that Mr. Yoshikawa who thought of it, sir."

  88. 29

    "So this Madonna is the untrustworthy one, is she?"

  89. 30

    "That's right, she's an untrustworthy Madonna, that one, sir."

  90. 31

    "That's a nuisance.

  91. There's never been a woman with a nickname who came to any good, since ancient times.

  92. So it might well be true."

  93. 32

    "It's true enough, sir.

  94. There's been fearsome women before — Kijin no Omatsu, or Dakki no Ohyaku, and the like, sir."

  95. 33

    "Is this Madonna one of that same breed, then?"

  96. 34

    "That Madonna, sir, listen to this.

  97. You know, that Mr. Koga who found this lodging for you — she'd had a promise to marry into his house, sir —"

  98. 35

    "Well, that's a strange business.

  99. I never took Uranari for a man who'd have that kind of romantic luck.

  100. You can't tell a man by his looks, can you.

  101. I'll have to keep an eye on him a bit."

  102. 36

    "Well, you see, sir, her father passed away last year — up till then they had money enough, and shares in a bank besides, and everything was going smoothly — but ever since then, somehow, their circumstances suddenly took a turn for the worse — the plain truth being that Mr. Koga is far too good-natured, and got taken in, sir.

  103. What with one thing and another, the wedding kept being put off, and it was right then that the head teacher came along and declared he wanted her for his own wife, sir."

  104. 37

    "That Red Shirt fellow, you mean?

  105. What a rotten piece of work.

  106. I always thought there was more to that shirt than just being a shirt.

  107. And then?"

  108. 38

    "Well, they had someone go and speak on his behalf, and even the Toyamas, feeling they owed Mr. Koga something, couldn't give an answer right off — they only said something like 'let us think it over,' sir.

  109. But then Mr. Red Shirt found himself some connection and started calling in and out of the Toyama house, and in the end, sir, he went and won the young lady clean over.

  110. Red Shirt's to blame, but the young lady's no better, and everyone round here speaks ill of them both for it.

  111. Once you've agreed to marry Mr. Koga, to turn round now just because a university man's turned up and switch to him instead — well, you couldn't answer to Lord Today for that, could you, sir?, does it, sir."

  112. 39

    "It certainly doesn't settle right.

  113. It wouldn't settle right with Not to Lord Today, nor Lord Tomorrow, nor Lord Day-After-Tomorrow — it'll never settle right, however long you go on."

  114. 40

    "So then, feeling sorry for Mr. Koga, his friend Mr. Hotta went to have it out with the head teacher, and Red Shirt told him: I have no intention of stealing away something that's already promised.

  115. If the engagement should fall through, I might take her, but for now I'm merely keeping company with the Toyama family, and there's nothing improper toward Mr. Koga in that — so he said, and Mr. Hotta had no choice but to come away.

  116. Ever since, they say Mr. Red Shirt and Mr. Hotta haven't been getting along, sir."

  117. 41

    "You know an awful lot about all this.

  118. How do you come to know such detailed things?

  119. I'm quite impressed."

  120. 42

    "It's a small place, sir — everything gets known."

  121. 43

    It knows too much for its own good, if you ask me.

  122. At this rate the place probably knows all about my tempura and my dumplings too.

  123. What a troublesome place.

  124. Still, thanks to her I now understood what Madonna meant, and the whole business between Porcupine and Red Shirt, which was a great education.

  125. The only trouble is I still can't make out plainly which of them is the villain.

  126. For a simple soul like me, unless someone sorts it into black and white, I can't tell which side to take.

  127. 44

    "Between Red Shirt and Porcupine, which is the better man, would you say?"

  128. 45

    "Whoever's this Porcupine, sir?"

  129. 46

    "Porcupine — that's what I call Hotta."

  130. 47

    "Well, for sheer strength Mr. Hotta looks the stronger of the two, but Mr. Red Shirt's a university man, so he's the more capable one, sir.

  131. And for kindliness too, Mr. Red Shirt's the kinder, but among the pupils it's said Mr. Hotta has the better name, sir."

  132. 48

    "So which one, on the whole, is the better?"

  133. 49

    "On the whole, I'd say the one drawing the bigger salary is the greater man, sir."

  134. 50

    There was no use asking further at this rate, so I gave it up.

  135. Two or three days later, I came home from school to find the old woman all smiles: "Well now, you've been waiting a good while.

  136. It's finally arrived."

  137. So saying, she brought in a single letter, told me to take my time reading it, and went out.

  138. I picked it up — it was word from Kiyo.

  139. There were two or three forwarding tags stuck to it, and looking closely, I saw it had gone from the Yamashiroya to the Ikagin's, and from the Ikagin's on to the Hagino house.

  140. On top of that, it had sat at the Yamashiroya for about a week.

  141. Being an inn, I suppose even a letter meant to put up there for the night.

  142. I opened it up, and it was an extraordinarily long thing.

  143. It began: after receiving Botchan's letter I meant to answer right away, but unluckily I caught cold and was laid up about a week, so I'm sorry it's ended up so late.

  144. Besides, I'm not clever at reading and writing like the young ladies these days, so even writing out this poor hand takes me no end of trouble.

  145. I thought of asking my nephew to write it out for me, but since I was writing it especially for you, it seemed it wouldn't do right by Botchan unless I wrote it myself, so I made a rough draft first and then copied it out fair.

  146. The fair copy took two days, but the rough draft took four.

  147. It may be hard to read, but I wrote it with all my heart, so please read it through to the end.

  148. That was how it opened, and there followed about four feet of this and that written out.

  149. It really was hard to read, right enough.

  150. It wasn't only that the writing was poor — it was mostly all in hiragana, so working out where one thing ended and the next began, and where to put the punctuation, was a great deal of trouble.

  151. I'm the impatient sort by nature, and normally if someone offered me five yen to read a letter this long and confusing, I'd turn it down flat, but this once I settled myself down in earnest and read it clean through from start to finish.

  152. I did read it through, that's a fact, but the reading was such hard going that the sense wouldn't hang together, so I went back and read it over again from the top.

  153. The room had grown a bit dim, harder to see by than before, so in the end I went out to the edge of the veranda, sat myself down, and read through it carefully.

  154. Just then an early-autumn wind stirred the banana-plant leaves, and after brushing against my bare skin swept on to catch the letter I was in the middle of reading and send it fluttering toward the garden, so that by the end its the half-sheet, more than four feet long rustled and rattled, and if I'd let go it looked ready to fly clean over to the hedge across the way.

  155. I couldn't be bothered with any of that.

  156. Botchan, it went on, has a straightforward temper, like a piece of split bamboo, but his temper's altogether too quick, and that's what worries me.

  157. — Pinning nicknames on other people without a thought only breeds grudges, so you mustn't go using them carelessly; if you do give someone one, be sure to write and tell only me.

  158. — They say country folk have bad hearts, so mind you're careful not to come to any harm.

  159. — The climate is bound to be more unsettled than Tokyo's, so don't catch a chill in your sleep and come down with a cold.

  160. Botchan's letters are always far too short, so I can't get a proper picture of how things are — next time, please write at least half as long as this letter of mine.

  161. — Giving the inn five yen for a tip was all very well, but won't it leave you short later on? Out in the country, money is the only thing you can rely on, so you must economize as much as you can, so as not to be caught short if something happens.

  162. — You might well be short of pocket money, so I'm sending ten yen by money order.

  163. — As for the fifty yen you gave me before, I've kept it deposited at the post office, meaning it to go toward setting up a household when you come back to Tokyo, and even after taking out this ten yen there's still forty yen left, so there's no need to worry.

  164. — Women, I thought, really do attend to the smallest things.

  165. 51

    While I sat at the edge of the veranda, letting Kiyo's letter flutter in my hand and turning it all over in my mind, the old Hagino woman slid open the partition and brought in my supper.

  166. "Still reading it, are you, sir?"

  167. "That's a mighty long letter, sir," she said, and I answered, not making much sense even to myself, "Yes, it's an important letter, so I let the wind blow on it a while, then read some more, then let it blow again," and sat down to my tray.

  168. I looked, and it was stewed sweet potato again tonight.

  169. This house was more courteous than the Ikagin's, and kind, and refined besides, but the pity of it was the food was terrible.

  170. Sweet potato yesterday, sweet potato the day before, and sweet potato again tonight.

  171. I had, it's true, declared outright that I loved sweet potato, but fed it day after day like this, I doubt my life will hold out.

  172. Far from having any right to laugh at Uranari, I'll be turning into a sweet-potato-pale Uranari myself before long.

  173. If it were Kiyo, at a time like this she'd feed me tuna sashimi or grilled fish-cake, the things I like, but there's no help for it with these stingy, impoverished samurai types.

  174. However I look at it, it's no good unless I'm together with Kiyo.

  175. If it looks like I'll be staying on long at this school, I'll send for her to come out from Tokyo.

  176. Mustn't eat tempura soba, mustn't eat dumplings, and on top of that sit in your lodgings eating nothing but sweet potato till you turn sallow — being an educator is a hard lot.

  177. Even a Zen monk, I'd wager, treats his palate better than this.

  178. — I finished off my plate of sweet potato, took two raw eggs out of my desk drawer, cracked them on the rim of my rice bowl, and just barely got by.

  179. If I don't get some nourishment somehow, even from raw eggs, how am I supposed to manage twenty-one hours of teaching a week?

  180. 52

    Today Kiyo's letter had made me late for my bath.

  181. Still, it felt wrong to skip even a single day of a habit I'd kept up every day.

  182. Thinking I might take the train, I set off, I set off with my usual red hand-towel dangling, but when I reached the station the train had left just two or three minutes before, and I had to wait a while.

  183. I sat myself on a bench and was puffing away at a Shikishima when, by chance, Uranari came along.

  184. Since hearing what I had earlier, I felt all the more sorry for Uranari.

  185. The way he'd always carried himself so meekly, as if he were merely a lodger sponging on heaven and earth, had always struck me as pitiful enough, but tonight it went far beyond mere pity.

  186. I was just in the mood, if it were possible, to double his salary, marry him off to the young Miss Toyama starting tomorrow, and send him off to enjoy himself in Tokyo for a month, so when I called out heartily, "Off to the bath too? Come, sit here," and offered him my seat, Uranari, looking quite overcome, said "No, please don't trouble yourself," and — whether out of modesty or something else — simply went on standing.

  187. "It'll be a bit of a wait before the next one leaves — you'll tire yourself, so do sit down," I pressed him again.

  188. The truth was, I felt so sorry for him that I wanted, by whatever means, to get him to sit down beside me.

  189. "Well then, if you don't mind," he said at last, and finally did as I asked.

  190. There are men in this world, like Toady, so cheeky they'll always show their face where they've no need to.

  191. There are others, like Porcupine, who carry a face on their shoulders as if to say Japan itself would be lost without them.

  192. And then again there's one like Red Shirt, who fancies himself a regular wholesaler of hair-cream and ladies' men.

  193. There's even the Badger, who all but announces that if education itself came alive and put on a frock coat, it would turn into him.

  194. Every one of them swaggers about after his own fashion, but I'd never before seen a man as quiet and unassuming as this Uranari, present yet as good as absent, meek as a doll held hostage.

  195. His face may be puffy, but for Madonna to throw over so fine a man as this and go swooning after Red Shirt — she must be a flighty piece with precious little sense.

  196. Gather up a dozen Red Shirts together, and could you make even one husband as fine as this?

  197. 53

    "Isn't something wrong with you somewhere?

  198. You look rather worn out…"

  199. "No, I've no particular ailment to speak of, but…"

  200. 54

    "Well, that's good.

  201. If your body's no good, a man's no good either."

  202. 55

    "You look to be in pretty fine health yourself, sir."

  203. 56

    "Oh, thin as I am, I never get sick.

  204. I can't stand the idea of being ill."

  205. 57

    Uranari heard what I said and grinned.

  206. 58

    Just then a young woman's laugh sounded from the entrance, and when I turned round without much thought, in walked a real stunner.

  207. A fair-skinned beauty, tall, with her hair done up in the fashionable style, stood beside a lady of about forty-five or forty-six, both of them in front of the ticket window.

  208. I'm not the sort of man who can describe a beauty properly, and I can't put it into words, but she was without question a beauty.

  209. It gave me a feeling somehow like holding a crystal bead warmed with perfume in the palm of my hand.

  210. The older woman was shorter.

  211. But their faces were so alike they must have been mother and daughter.

  212. The moment I thought, "ah, here she is," I forgot all about Uranari and did nothing but stare at the young woman.

  213. Then Uranari suddenly got up from beside me and began walking slowly toward the women, which startled me a little.

  214. I thought — could this be Madonna?

  215. The three of them exchanged a light greeting there before the ticket window.

  216. I was too far off to make out what they were saying.

  217. 59

    I looked at the station clock — only five minutes left before departure.

  218. I was wishing the train would hurry up and come, feeling the wait all the longer now that I had no one to talk to, when someone else came dashing flustered into the station.

  219. I looked — it was Red Shirt.

  220. He had on some flimsy-looking kimono with a crepe sash wound sloppily round it, and as usual let that gold chain dangle.

  221. That gold chain of his is a fake.

  222. Red Shirt shows it off thinking no one's the wiser, but I know full well.

  223. The instant he dashed in he glanced about restlessly, then made a deep, courteous bow to the three of them talking before the ticket office, and after saying what seemed like two or three words, suddenly turned this way, came padding over with that soft cat's-tread of his as always, and said, "Ah, you're off to the bath too? I hurried over worrying I might miss the train, but there's still three or four minutes."

  224. "I wonder if that clock's accurate," he said, taking out his own gold watch, remarking that it was off by about two minutes, and sat himself down beside me.

  225. The young woman didn't so much as glance our way, resting her chin on the top of her cane and gazing straight ahead.

  226. The older woman looked over at Red Shirt now and then, but the young one kept her face turned aside the whole time.

  227. Now I was sure of it — she had to be Madonna.

  228. 60

    Presently the whistle gave a shriek, and the train pulled in.

  229. The crowd that had been waiting piled aboard in a scramble, each pushing to be first.

  230. Red Shirt was the very first to leap into a first-class car.

  231. Riding first class is hardly anything to swagger about — first class to Sumita costs five sen and third costs three, so a mere two-sen difference is all that separates the classes.

  232. You can tell as much from the fact that even a fellow like me splurges on first class and holds a white ticket.

  233. Mind you, country folk are stingy, and even a mere two sen seems to weigh heavily on them, so most of them ride third class.

  234. After Red Shirt, Madonna and Madonna's mother climbed into first class as well.

  235. Uranari was a man who always rode third class, as if it were printed in his very nature.

  236. There he stood at the entrance to the third-class car looking rather hesitant, but the moment he caught sight of my face, he screwed up his courage and jumped straight in.

  237. At that moment I felt so unaccountably sorry for him that I climbed straight into the same car right after him.

  238. There's no harm, surely, in riding third class on a first-class ticket.

  239. 61

    Once at the hot springs, I came down from the third floor in my bathrobe to the bathing pool, and there I ran into Uranari again.

  240. I'm the sort of man whose throat closes up and can't say a word when it comes to the crucial point, at a meeting or the like, but ordinarily I'm quite the talker, so I tried making all kinds of conversation with Uranari there in the bath.

  241. He struck me as so pitiable I couldn't bear it.

  242. At a time like this, it's an Edokko's duty to offer even one word of comfort to the man's heart, or so I believe.

  243. But unluckily, Uranari, for his part, wouldn't play along with my tune no matter how I tried.

  244. Whatever I said, all I got back was "yes" or "no," and even those seemed to cost him a good deal of effort, so in the end I gave it up and excused myself first.

  245. 62

    I didn't run into Red Shirt in the bath.

  246. Mind you, there were plenty of baths there, so even arriving on the same train hardly meant we'd end up in the same pool.

  247. I didn't think it especially odd.

  248. Coming out of the bath, I found a fine moon out.

  249. Willows were planted on both sides of the street, and their branches cast round shadows onto the road.

  250. I thought I might take a little stroll.

  251. Heading north to the edge of town, I came upon a great gate on the left, with a temple standing straight beyond it, and brothels lining either side.

  252. A pleasure quarter inside a temple gate — that's a thing unheard of before.

  253. I wanted to go in and have a look, but the Badger might get after me about it at some meeting again, so I gave it up and passed straight by.

  254. The little single-story shop next to the gate, with the black curtain hung out front and the small lattice window, was the very place where I'd eaten dumplings and gotten myself into trouble.

  255. A round paper lantern with "sweet bean soup, rice-cake soup" written on it hung there, its flame lighting up the trunk of a willow tree standing close by the eaves.

  256. I thought I'd like to have some, but held myself back and walked on past.

  257. 63

    Not being able to eat the dumplings I want to eat is a sorry thing.

  258. But surely more sorry still is having your own betrothed give her heart to another man.

  259. Thinking of Uranari, dumplings are nothing — I ought not to complain even if I fasted three whole days.

  260. Truly, there's nothing so unreliable as a human being.

  261. Looking at her face, I couldn't for the life of me imagine her capable of anything so heartless — but there it is: the beautiful one turns out heartless, while Koga, puffy as a bloated winter melon, turns out the true gentleman, so you can never let your guard down.

  262. Porcupine, whom I'd taken for a straightforward man, is said to have stirred up the students.

  263. No sooner do I think he stirred them up than I hear he's pressing the principal to discipline them.

  264. Red Shirt, who seems kneaded through and through out of insincerity, turns out unexpectedly kind, giving me indirect warnings for my own good — and then no sooner do I think that than he's deceiving Madonna, and no sooner do I think he's deceived her than word comes that he won't press for the marriage unless Koga's engagement first breaks off.

  265. No sooner does the Ikagin pick some fault to drive me out than Toady moves right in after me — however I look at it, none of it can be relied on.

  266. If I wrote all this to Kiyo, she'd surely be amazed.

  267. She might well say it's because this is beyond Hakone that all the monsters have gathered together here.

  268. 64

    By nature I'm the sort who doesn't let things trouble me, and I'd got through life so far without fretting over anything, but here it hadn't even been a full month since I came to this place before I suddenly began to feel the world had turned dangerous.

  269. Nothing particularly dramatic had actually happened to me, and yet I felt as though I'd aged five or six years already.

  270. The best thing, surely, would be to wrap things up quickly and go back to Tokyo.

  271. Turning thoughts like these over one after another, I found I had crossed the stone bridge and come out onto the bank of the Noseri River before I knew it.

  272. Calling it a river makes it sound grander than it is — really it's just a trickle about six feet across — and following the bank down for some twelve chō brings you out at Aioi village.

  273. The village has a statue of Kannon.

  274. 65

    Looking back at the hot-springs town, red lights glimmered in the light of the moon.

  275. The drums sounding must be from the pleasure quarter.

  276. The river ran shallow but swift, and glittered restlessly, like water with nerves of its own.

  277. Ambling along the top of the bank, I'd gone about three chō, I reckoned, when a human figure came into view up ahead.

  278. Peering through the moonlight, I made out that there were two shadows.

  279. They might be young fellows coming back from the hot springs to the village.

  280. And yet, if that were so, they weren't singing any songs.

  281. They were surprisingly quiet.

  282. 66

    As I walked on, my pace seemed the quicker, for the two shadow-figures kept growing steadily larger.

  283. One of them looked to be a woman.

  284. Catching the sound of my footsteps, when I'd closed to about ten ken, the man suddenly turned around.

  285. The moon was shining from behind me.

  286. At that moment, seeing the look of the man, I thought — now, what's this?

  287. The man and woman set off walking again just as before.

  288. I had a notion of my own, so I suddenly gave chase at full speed.

  289. They, sensing nothing, kept moving along leisurely just as they had at first.

  290. By now I could even make out their voices as plainly as if I held them in my hand.

  291. The bank was about six feet wide, so three people walking abreast was as much as it could hold.

  292. I caught up from behind without any trouble, and brushing past the man's sleeve, took two steps on ahead, spun round on my heel, and peered straight into the man's face.

  293. The moon shone full in my face from the front, lighting up everything from my close-cropped head down to my chin without any ceremony.

  294. The man gave a small startled cry, but turned his face quickly aside, and no sooner had he urged the woman, "let's be getting back now," than he turned and hurried back toward the hot-springs town.

  295. 67

    Was Red Shirt too brazen and meaning to bluff it out, or too faint-hearted to give his name — I couldn't tell which.

  296. But it turned out I wasn't the only one troubled by how small this place was.

The particulars

The text
坊っちゃん, Natsume Sōseki. Botchan.
Translation
Public-domain Japanese (Natsume Sōseki, d. 1916; published 1906). English translation © 2026 1732 Studios, LLC.
Reading aloud
Digital narration, directed by 1732 Studios.
Words
Every word of the text, by letter.
Data
JSON · Markdown · A guide for agents
Two whoopie pies and a pine. An inside joke.