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八

Chapter 8

220 sentences · 19 notes

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  1. 1

    Ever since I came back from that fishing trip Red Shirt talked me into, I'd started to suspect Porcupine.

    赤red赤 · nouncompound with シャツ
    シャツRed Shirtシャツ · nounoblique complement of 勧め
    にbyに · particleparticle marking シャツ
    勧めurged勧める · verbadverbial clause on 行っ
    られwasられる · auxiliary verbauxiliary of 勧め
    てandて · subordinating conjunctionintroduces the clause of 勧め
    釣fishing釣り · nounoblique complement of 行っ
    にtoに · particleparticle marking 釣
    行っwent行く · verbclause modifying 帰り
    た(past)た · auxiliary verbauxiliary of 行っ
    帰りreturn帰り · nounoblique complement of 疑ぐり
    からsinceから · particleparticle marking 帰り
    山嵐Porcupine山嵐 · noundirect object of 疑ぐり
    を(object)を · particleparticle marking 山嵐
    疑ぐりsuspecting疑ぐる · verbpart of the phrase 出し
    出しstarted to出す · verbmain verb of the sentence
    た(past)た · auxiliary verbauxiliary of 出し

  2. When I was told to clear out of my lodgings over some invented pretext, I thought he really was a low blackguard.

  3. But then, at the faculty meeting, against all my expectations, he'd argued on and on for strict punishment of the students, and I cocked my head, thinking, huh, that's odd.

  4. When I heard from old Hagino that Porcupine had gone and had it out with Red Shirt on Uranari's behalf, I clapped my hands and thought, now that's admirable of him.

  5. Just when I was starting to wonder — the way it looked, the bad one couldn't be Porcupine, it must be Red Shirt who was crooked, maybe planting some baseless suspicion in my head, making it sound plausible and doing it by roundabout means — right at that point I saw him strolling along the bank of the Nozeri River with Madonna, and from then on I was sure Red Shirt was a shady character.

  6. Whether he was a shady character or not I couldn't quite say, but in any case he was no good man.

  7. He was one man on the outside and another underneath.

  8. A man ought to be straight as bamboo, or he isn't worth trusting.

  9. Even when you quarrel with a straightforward man, it leaves a good feeling.

  10. Someone like Red Shirt, showing off his gentleness and kindness and refinement and his amber pipe — you couldn't let your guard down around a man like that, and you could hardly ever quarrel with him properly, I thought.

  11. Even if you did quarrel with him, it wouldn't be the satisfying kind of quarrel you get at the Ekōin sumo ring, I thought.

  12. That being so, Porcupine — my sparring partner in that one-sen-five-rin argument that had startled the whole staff room — was by far the more human of the two.

  13. When he glared at me at the meeting, rolling his deep-set eyes as he glared at me, I thought he was a hateful fellow; but afterward even that seemed better than Red Shirt’s cloying, coaxing voice.

  14. The truth is, after that meeting was over, I'd thought of making up with him and tried a word or two, but the fellow wouldn't even answer, just glared at me again, so I got angry too and left it at that.

  15. 2

    Since then Porcupine hasn't spoken a word to me.

  16. The one sen five rin I put back on his desk is still sitting there on the desk.

  17. It's sitting there covered in dust.

  18. I certainly can't touch it, and Porcupine absolutely won't take it back.

  19. That one sen five rin has become a wall between the two of us — I want to talk but can't bring myself to, and Porcupine just stubbornly keeps quiet.

  20. That one sen five rin has cursed the both of us.

  21. In the end, going to school and seeing that coin became a torment.

  22. 3

    In contrast to how Porcupine and I had broken off relations — Red Shirt and I have gone right on as before, keeping up our acquaintance.

  23. The day after we met at the Nozeri River, for instance, he came straight up to me the moment I got to school and started chattering about all sorts of things — was my new lodging any good, and shouldn't we go fishing for Russian literature together again sometime.

  24. I found it a little irritating, so I said we'd already met twice last night, and he said, oh yes, at the station — do you always go out that late, isn't that rather late?

  25. When I threw in that we also met on the bank of the Nozeri River, he answered, no, I never go that way, I just went to the bath and came straight home.

  26. There was no need to hide it like that; I'd plainly seen him.

  27. The man's a real liar.

  28. If a fellow like that can hold down the post of vice principal at a middle school, then I could be chancellor of a university.

  29. From that moment on I stopped trusting Red Shirt altogether.

  30. I go on talking with the Red Shirt I don't trust, and don't talk at all with the Porcupine I admire.

  31. The world's a strange enough place.

  32. 4

    One day Red Shirt said he had a little something to discuss and asked me to come round to his house, so — much as I hated to give it up — I skipped my trip to the hot spring and set off around four o'clock.

  33. Red Shirt is a bachelor, but being vice principal he'd long since given up lodgings and set himself up with a fine front entrance.

  34. The rent, they say, is nine yen fifty sen.

  35. It was the kind of entryway that made me think — if nine yen fifty sen buys a house like this out here in the country, maybe I ought to splurge myself and send for Kiyo from Tokyo, just to make her happy.

  36. When I called out that I'd come, Red Shirt's younger brother came out to receive me.

  37. This brother is a thoroughly poor student of mine at school, in algebra and arithmetic.

  38. And being an outsider besides, he's got a nastier streak than any born-and-bred country boy.

  39. 5

    When I met Red Shirt and asked what he wanted, the great man, puffing away at his usual amber pipe on some rank-smelling tobacco, said something like this.

  40. "Ever since you came, the results have been a good deal better than under your predecessor, and the principal's delighted to have got such a good man — so, since the school is placing its trust in you, I do hope you'll keep at it with that in mind."

  41. 6

    "Well, is that so. As for keeping at it, I'm not sure I can work any harder than I already am—"

  42. 7

    "What you're doing now is plenty.

  43. It's only that matter we talked about the other day — I'd just like you to keep that in mind, that's all."

  44. 8

    "You mean what you said about it being risky to trust a man who finds me lodgings?"

  45. 9

    "Put so bluntly it loses all its meaning — well, never mind — I think the spirit of it has already gotten through to you well enough.

  46. So, if you go on applying yourself as you have been, the school is keeping a proper eye on things, and before too long, once things can be arranged, I imagine your treatment here could improve somewhat."

  47. 10

    "Oh, you mean my pay.

  48. I don't much care one way or the other about my pay, though of course going up is better than going down."

  49. 11

    "As it happens, there's going to be a transfer of one man before long — though of course I can't promise anything until I've spoken with the principal — and out of that man's salary there might be some room to make an adjustment, so I thought I'd see about arranging things with the principal."

  50. 12

    "Much obliged.

  51. Who's being transferred?"

  52. 13

    "It'll be announced soon enough, so I don't suppose there's any harm in telling you now.

  53. As a matter of fact, it's Koga."

  54. 14

    "Koga? But isn't he from around here?"

  55. 15

    "He is a local man, but there are some circumstances — half of it's at his own wish."

  56. 16

    "Where's he going?"

  57. 17

    "To Nobeoka, in Hyūga — since it's that kind of place, he'll go up a grade in pay."

  58. 18

    "Is someone coming to replace him?"

  59. 19

    "The replacement is more or less settled already.

  60. And it's on account of that replacement's arrangement that your own treatment can be worked out."

  61. 20

    "Well, that's fine.

  62. But there is no need to force the raise through."

  63. 21

    "In any case, I mean to speak to the principal about it.

  64. And since the principal seems to be of the same mind, before long it may come to where we need you to work rather harder than you have, so I'd like you to be prepared for that, starting now."

  65. 22

    "Are my hours going to increase, then?"

  66. 23

    "No, if anything your hours may go down—"

  67. 24

    "My hours go down, and I work harder? That's strange."

  68. 25

    "It does sound strange put that way — I can't say anything definite just yet — but, well, in short, it means you might be given rather more serious responsibility."

  69. 26

    None of this made the least sense to me.

  70. If it means more serious responsibility than I have now, that would be head of the mathematics department, but Porcupine holds that post, and he's not the sort of man to go resigning it.

  71. Besides, given how popular he is with the students, a transfer or a dismissal would hardly be to the school's advantage.

  72. Red Shirt's talk never does come to the point.

  73. Whether it came to the point or not, that settled the business for the day.

  74. After that we chatted a bit about other things — about holding a farewell party for Uranari, and whether I drank, and about what a gentleman Uranari was and how likable — Red Shirt went on about any number of things.

  75. Finally he changed the subject and asked whether I composed haiku, and I thought, here we go — said I didn't do haiku, said goodbye, and made my escape.

  76. Haiku is a business for the likes of Bashō or the master at the barbershop.

  77. A mathematics teacher can't very well have his well bucket snagged by morning glories.

  78. 27

    I went home and turned it all over in my mind, hard.

  79. There really are some incomprehensible men in this world.

  80. To grow sick of one's hometown, where there's a house and land and a perfectly good school to work at, and go off looking for hardship in some strange province he's never even seen.

  81. If it were at least somewhere with streetcars running through the flowering capital, that would be one thing, but what on earth was Nobeoka in Hyūga.

  82. Even I, coming to a place as convenient as this with a good harbor, had already wanted to go home before a month was out.

  83. Nobeoka, they say, is mountains upon mountains upon mountains, way out in the sticks.

  84. According to what Red Shirt said, you land from the boat, ride a carriage for a whole day to Miyazaki, and from Miyazaki have to ride another whole day in a cart before you even arrive.

  85. Just hearing the name, you'd never take it for a civilized place.

  86. It sounds to me like a place where monkeys and men live about half and half.

  87. Even a saint like Uranari surely wouldn't care to keep company with monkeys by choice — what a peculiar taste for hardship that would be.

  88. 28

    Just then, as always, the old woman came in bringing dinner.

  89. I asked, is it potatoes again today, and she said, no, today it's tofu, zo na moshi.

  90. Either way, it comes to about the same thing.

  91. 29

    "Ma'am, I hear Mr. Koga's going off to Hyūga."

  92. 30

    "Ah, truly, the poor man, mo shi."

  93. 31

    "Poor man, well, if he's going by his own wish, there's nothing to be done about it."

  94. 32

    "Going of his own free will? Who is?"

  95. 33

    "Who says so — why, the man himself.

  96. Isn't Mr. Koga going off out of some peculiar taste for hardship?"

  97. 34

    "Why, you’re completely off the mark, you are."

  98. 35

    "Kangorō, is it.

  99. But Red Shirt just told me so himself, just now.

  100. If that's Kangorō, then Red Shirt's a liar and a regular Lord Windbag."

  101. 36

    "What the vice principal says is reasonable enough, but it is just as reasonable that Mr. Koga does not want to go., zo na moshi."

  102. 37

    "So they're both true, are they.

  103. You're a fair-minded one, ma'am.

  104. Just what is the reason for all this, then?"

  105. 38

    "This morning Koga's mother came by and told me the whole story, ga na moshi."

  106. 39

    "What sort of story did she tell?"

  107. 40

    "Ever since his father passed away over there, things haven't been half so well off as we'd have thought, and they've been in trouble, so his mother went and asked the principal — since he's already served four years — whether he mightn't raise a little what he gets paid each month, that sort of thing, you understand."

  108. 41

    "I see."

  109. 42

    "The principal is supposed to have said, well, let me think it over.

  110. So his mother felt easy about it, thinking, any day now word of the raise will come, waiting with her neck stretched out wondering if it'd be this month or next — and then the principal called Koga in for a moment, and when he went, the principal said, I'm sorry, but the school hasn't the money, so I can't raise your pay.

  111. But there happens to be an opening at Nobeoka, and there you could take in five yen extra every month, so I've gone ahead and arranged it that way, thinking that would suit what you wanted — go on and take it, he's supposed to have said. ——"

  112. 43

    "Then it isn't a discussion at all, it's an order, isn't it?"

  113. 44

    "Just so.

  114. Mr. Koga said he'd rather stay here on his old pay than go off somewhere else for more.

  115. He's got a house here, and his mother besides, he pleaded — but by then it had already been decided that way, and Koga's replacement was already arranged, so there was nothing for it, the principal is supposed to have said."

  116. 45

    "Well, that's making a fool of the man, it's no laughing matter.

  117. So Mr. Koga has no wish to go at all?

  118. No wonder it struck me as odd.

  119. There can hardly be a fool anywhere who'd go off to some mountain den like that to keep monkeys company, just for an extra five yen or so."

  120. 46

    "A fool — meaning the teacher himself, zo na moshi?"

  121. 47

    "Never mind who — the whole thing is Red Shirt's scheme, plain and simple.

  122. It's a rotten piece of business.

  123. It's practically a sneak attack.

  124. And then to have the nerve to raise my pay on top of it — how outrageous can a thing get?

  125. Raise it, he says — who's going to let himself be raised, I ask you?"

  126. 48

    "Is the teacher's pay going to be raised, then, na moshi?"

  127. 49

    "He said he'd raise it, so I mean to refuse it."

  128. 50

    "Why ever would you refuse it, zo na moshi?"

  129. 51

    "Never mind why, I'm refusing it, that's all.

  130. Ma'am, that Red Shirt is a fool, I tell you.

  131. A coward, too."

  132. 52

    "Coward or not, sir, if they offer to raise your pay, the wise thing is to take it quietly and be glad of it, zo na moshi.

  133. When you're young you're quick to lose your temper over things, but when you get older and look back, you'll wish you'd shown a little more patience and regret it.

  134. It's only natural to regret losing out on account of a fit of temper, so listen to an old woman — if Mr. Red Shirt says he'll raise your pay, you take it with a nice much obliged, now."

  135. 53

    "An old woman needn't go troubling herself over other people's business.

  136. My pay is my own affair, whether it goes up or down."

  137. 54

    The old woman fell silent and withdrew.

  138. The old man was singing utai in his carefree voice.

  139. Utai, I suppose, is the art of taking something that would be perfectly clear if you just read it, setting it to some needlessly difficult tune, and making it deliberately incomprehensible.

  140. I can't understand the old man's mind, droning away at that sort of thing every single night without ever tiring of it.

  141. I was in no state to bother with utai.

  142. When he said he'd raise my pay, I didn't especially want it, but it seemed a waste to leave money lying around that I had no use for, so I'd said fine, I agreed — but now, forcing a transfer on a man who doesn't want to be transferred and skimming the difference off his salary to give it to me — how could such a heartless thing be done?

  143. What on earth was the reasoning, making a man drop all the way down to Nobeoka when he himself said the old arrangement suited him fine?

  144. Even Dazai no Gon no Sochi settled down somewhere around Hakata.

  145. Even Kawai Matagorō stopped at Sagara, didn't he.

  146. In any case, I couldn't rest easy until I'd gone to Red Shirt's and refused it to his face.

  147. 55

    I put on my Kokura hakama and set out again.

  148. I stood myself in that great entryway and called out that I'd come, and again the same younger brother came out to receive me.

  149. He gave me a look that said, oh, back again, are you.

  150. If I've business, I'll come twice, three times over, if I have to.

  151. I might even come knocking in the dead of night for all he knows.

  152. Does he take me for someone who comes calling on the vice principal just to pay his respects?

  153. I've come this time precisely because I don't want the pay.

  154. The brother said someone was visiting just now, so I said the entryway would do fine, I only wanted a word, and he withdrew to the back.

  155. Looking down, I saw a thin pair of forward-tilting clogs with tatami-covered soles.

  156. From inside I heard a voice say, “That's it, then, banzai!”

  157. I realized then that the visitor must be Toady.

  158. No one but Toady would speak in that shrill voice or wear such theatrical clogs.

  159. 56

    After a while Red Shirt came out to the entryway carrying a lamp and said, come now, do step in, it's no stranger, it's only Yoshikawa — but I said, no, here will do quite well.

  160. I said a word would be enough, and looking at Red Shirt's face, I saw it was flushed red as a Kintoki doll.

  161. It looked as if he had been drinking with Toady.

  162. 57

    "You said earlier you'd raise my pay, but I've had a change of mind, and I've come to refuse it."

  163. 58

    Red Shirt held the lamp out before him and peered at my face from farther inside, too taken aback for the moment to answer, and just stood there dazed.

  164. Whether it was because he found it odd that in all the world just one man had turned up to refuse a raise, or because he was appalled that, whatever the refusal, I'd only just left and had no business coming straight back to say so — or maybe both together — he stood there rooted to the spot with a strange look on his face.

  165. 59

    "When I agreed to it before, it was because I understood Koga was transferring by his own wish, and so..."

  166. 60

    "Koga really is transferring partly of his own wish."

  167. 61

    "That's not it at all — he wants to stay here.

  168. Even on his old pay, he wants to stay in his own hometown."

  169. 62

    "Did you hear that from Koga himself?"

  170. 63

    "No, I didn't hear it from him directly."

  171. 64

    "Then who did you hear it from?"

  172. 65

    "The old woman at my lodging house heard it from Koga's mother, and she told me about it today."

  173. 66

    "So it's your landlady who said as much."

  174. 67

    "Well, yes."

  175. 68

    "I'm afraid that's a bit off the mark.

  176. What you're saying comes down to trusting the word of your landlady over the word of the vice principal — may I take that to be what you mean?"

  177. 69

    I was rather at a loss.

  178. A Bachelor of Letters really is a formidable thing.

  179. He fastens onto some odd little point and comes pressing at you, worrying it over and over.

  180. My father was always telling me I was careless and no good, and it seems there's some truth to it after all.

  181. I'd heard the old woman's story, jumped up, and rushed straight out, without having actually spoken to either Uranari or his mother myself to get the details.

  182. So when a Bachelor of Letters comes slashing at me like this, it is hard for me to parry him.

  183. 70

    Hard as it was to face him head-on, in my own mind I'd already handed down my verdict of no confidence in Red Shirt.

  184. My landlady may well be a stingy, grasping sort, but she's not a woman who tells lies — she isn't two-faced the way Red Shirt is.

  185. Having no other choice, I answered like this.

  186. 71

    "What you're saying may well be true — but in any case, I decline the raise."

  187. 72

    "That's odder still.

  188. It sounded as though the very reason you troubled yourself to come here just now was that you couldn't bring yourself to accept the raise for a certain reason — and now that I've explained that reason away, your still refusing it strikes me as a little hard to make sense of."

  189. 73

    "It may well be hard to make sense of.

  190. In any case, I refuse it."

  191. 74

    "If you're so set against it, I won't press you, but changing your mind so completely within two or three hours, without any particular reason, is going to affect your credibility later on."

  192. 75

    "It's fine if it does."

  193. 76

    "That can't be so — there's nothing more important to a man than his credibility.

  194. Suppose, for argument's sake, that your landlord..."

  195. 77

    "Not my landlord — my landlady."

  196. 78

    "Either one will do.

  197. Even granting as fact what your landlady told you, your raise wouldn't be coming out of any cut to Koga's own earnings.

  198. Koga is going to Nobeoka.

  199. A replacement is coming.

  200. The replacement will oblige us by coming for somewhat less than Koga was paid.

  201. The surplus from that is what's being passed on to you, so you needn't feel sorry for anyone on that account.

  202. Koga will actually be advancing in his career by going to Nobeoka.

  203. The new man is coming in at a lower salary from the very start, by his own agreement.

  204. And if your own pay rises as a result, I can't think of a more convenient arrangement all around.

  205. If you still don't like it, that's fine, but won't you think it over once more at home?"

  206. 79

    My head isn't a particularly clever one, and ordinarily, whenever the other man puts on this kind of skillful argument, I'll think, oh, is that so, well then, I suppose I was wrong, and back down in awe — but tonight it wasn't going to work that way.

  207. Something about Red Shirt had rubbed me the wrong way from the very first day I came here.

  208. There was a stretch where I'd reconsidered and thought him rather like a kind-hearted woman, but since that kindness had turned out to be nothing of the sort, the reaction had left me disliking him more than ever by now.

  209. So it made no difference how cleverly and logically he tried to make his case, or how grandly he tried to talk me down in his best vice-principal manner.

  210. A man who argues well isn't necessarily a good man.

  211. A man who gets argued down isn't necessarily a bad one.

  212. On the surface Red Shirt's case was entirely reasonable, but however fine he looks on the surface, that cannot make me admire him in my heart.

  213. If money or power or clever reasoning could buy a man's heart, then moneylenders and policemen and university professors would be the best-loved men of all.

  214. What sort of logic does a middle-school vice principal think can move my heart?

  215. A man acts on likes and dislikes.

  216. He doesn't act on logic.

  217. 80

    "What you say may be perfectly reasonable, but I've simply gone off wanting the raise, so I'll refuse it, and that's that.

  218. It comes to the same thing however you think it over.

  219. “Goodbye,” I flung at him, and walked out through the gate.

  220. Overhead, the Milky Way hung in a single stripe across the sky.

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.
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Every word of the text, by letter.
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Two whoopie pies and a pine. An inside joke.