Trouble With Women Part III 2/3

“But what I remember most fondly is playing with my cousin who was the same age as me.” We would often go fishing in the stream that ran between the mountains. There was a great pool of deep blue water on one side of the valley, while the water on this side was shallow enough for us to stand in and cast our line. Looking upward you could see the sculpted mountains jutting up from either side of the canyon, the sky like a bright sash against the dark tangle of shrubs and pine trees that covered the mountainside. Raise your voice and a mountainous moan would echo through the ravine; fish in silence and all was still.

Trouble With Women Part III (1/3)

*This section of the story is longer than the previous two, so I’ll be posting it in two parts. Hope you continue to enjoy the story!

～苦栗鼠

By Kunikida Doppo (Tr. C E Zambrano)

III (1/2)

I had him sit at the veranda and offered a cup of barley tea before asking for a song. I’m a complete novice when it comes to the shakuhachi, so I can’t attest to his technical proficiency or how good the tune was. But he played with such feeling that I found myself deeply moved as the sound of his shakuhachi came over me. It was a deeply melancholy tune that made you feel as though you might cry, and I wondered if he playing had ever been moved to such emotion.

Trouble With Women, Part II

By Kunikida Doppo (Tr. C E Zambrano)

II

In the summer of the same year, I rented a little house near the mountains in Kamakura and stayed there with my family to get away from the heat. One night the sky was so clear and the moon shone so brightly that I decided to go out for a walk along the beach.

The beach was like a different place at night, with few people out despite the exquisite moon. I stood at the water’s edge where a small stream flowed into the ocean and gazed out at the silver light chopped up by the waves. And as I stood there the faint sound of a shakuhachi wafted toward me.

“Trouble With Women” (女難 jonan) by Kunikida Doppo: Part I

Hello all! It’s been over a year, but I’ve finally started up a new project! Some readers may remember, but my first translation here was a story by Kunikida Doppo called “The Bonfire“, and I’ve decided to return to his writing with a story called “Trouble With Women” (女難 jonan). It was originally published in December 1903 (Meiji 36) in a journal called Bungeikai (文藝界). “Trouble With Women” was published seven years after “The Bonfire,” and doesn’t use the same archaic language as the former story. The opening scene that shows a haggard beggar performing beautiful music on the street really stuck with me as I was skimming through potential stories to translate, so I decided to go for it. This is just the first of five segments, so you can expect more soon!

～苦栗鼠

Trouble With Women

By Kunikida Doppo (Tr. C E Zambrano)

I

It was four years ago, a certain man began to say. I was walking through Ginza on some errand or another when at a street crossing I saw a man playing the shakuhachi[1] alone in a corner. There were seven or eight people standing by him, so I decided to walk over and join the audience.

“A Snowy Night’s Tale” by Dazai Osamu

That day it was snowing since morning, you know. The monpe¹ I had started making for my cousin Otsuru-chan was long ready, so I decided to drop by my aunt’s house in Nakano to deliver it and got two dried squids as gifts while I was there. By the time I got back to Kichijōji station it was already dark and the snow fall was over a foot. And even so the snow was still gently falling! I felt rather giddy