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Bồ Công Anh

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Điên trong cõi yêu và yêu trong cõi điên thì có gì khác với nàng Inako, nhân vật trung tâm nhưng không bao giời hiển hiện tự thân trong Bồ Công Anh, người mắc chứng nhân thể khuyết thị đã bao lần không nhìn thấy thân thể người yêu dù được anh ôm trong vòng tay.

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Kawabata đã biến chứng nhân thể khuyết thị đó từ bệnh lí sang triết lí. Nói như người yêu của Inako thì: "Chứng nhân thể khuyết thị chẳng phải là căn bệnh mà không nhìn thấy phần nào đó của mình, không nhìn thấy phần nào đó của người mình yêu thương, không nhìn thấy phần nào đó của cuộc đời sao?"

"Ai mà như em ôi bồ công anh
tan trong chiều đông long lanh long lanh
gió giục rung mình em ánh sáng
em rơi từ thiên thanh
Khi tiếng chuông chùa ngân nga
thiên nữ nghiêng mình bay tán hoa
bàn tay sinh tử xui em múa
em tung mình trong phôi pha."
(Thơ Nhật Chiêu)

Hiện lên rõ nét nhất trong tác phẩm là bi cảm nhân sinh.

Câu chuyện miên man, buồn bã giữa người mẹ và chàng trai trước cái đẹp bị tổn thương, về một nhân vật không xuất hiện trực tiếp - một cô gái gần như vô hình vô tiếng trong tác phẩm nhưng người đọc cảm được sự tồn tại của cô qua tình yêu của người mẹ, của chàng trai, và qua tiếng chuông chùa cô gióng lê

Trích lời giới thiệu của nhà nghiên cứu Nhật Chiêu.

BỒ CÔNG ANH được đánh giá ngang tầm với Hồ, Những người đẹp ngủ say… dù chỉ là một tác phẩm hãy còn dang dở.
_____

VỀ TÁC GIẢ: KAWABATA YASUNARI (1899 – 1972) từ năm 1935 đã hoạt động với tư cách một tác giả kiêm nhà phê bình văn học tràn trề năng lượng. Cho đến khi được xướng tên là chủ nhân giải Nobel văn học năm 1968, Kawabata đã viết nên những tác phẩm nổi tiếng như: Xứ tuyết (1935), Ngàn cánh hạc (1949), Hồ (1954), Những người đẹp ngủ say (1960), Đẹp và buồn (1961) và hơn một trăm truyện ngắn trong lòng bàn tay… Có thể nói, ông đã để lại một di sản đồ sộ không chỉ dành riêng cho văn chương Nhật Bản mà cho cả thế giới.

232 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1972

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About the author

Yasunari Kawabata

431 books3,752 followers
Yasunari Kawabata (川端 康成) was a Japanese short story writer and novelist whose spare, lyrical, subtly-shaded prose works won him the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1968, the first Japanese author to receive the award. His works have enjoyed broad international appeal and are still widely read today.
Nobel Lecture: 1968
http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prize...

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Profile Image for Heba.
1,231 reviews3,034 followers
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February 13, 2023
كيف يقع اختياري على قراءة هذه الرواية للتعرف على الكاتب الياباني " كاواباتا" واذ اكتشف إنها الرواية الأخيرة غير المكتملة والتي كتبها قبيل انتحاره؟!!....
ومع ذلك كان لقاءً آسراً وآخاذاً ، ليس من السهل نسيانه...
لقد اصيبت الفتاة " إينكو" بنوبات من العمى الجزئي حيث لا تتمكن من رؤية أشياء بعينها ، وهنا تودعها والدتها بمشفى للأمراض العصبية فى بلدة هادئة وديعة ولكن ذلك كان تعارضاً مع رغبة الشاب الذي كان يحب الفتاة ويتمنى أن يبقى بجانبها دائماً ويوليها العناية التي تحتاجها ...
على ضفة النهر تتناثر زهور الهندباء ، نجمية رقيقة ، يغلبها اللون الأصفر ، تتفتح بتلاتها صباحاً وتنغلق ليلاً...
الأم والشاب في طريق عودتهما ، يدور بينهما حواراً طويلاً لتقصي حقيقة الحب ، الجنون ، الحياة ، والوجود الانساني ...
وهنا يتنبه الشاب لزهرة هندباء وحيدة بيضاء فيما بين الأخريات ذات اللون الأصفر، واراها رمزاً لحبيبته التي أودعت بمشفى للمجانين لم يكن لها مكاناً به وكما لو أنه محكومٌ عليها كزهرة هندباء غريبة فيما بين المرضى هناك...
هل حقاً الرواية غير مكتملة ؟ ...
أراها ليست كذلك بل وقد تساءلت كيف أقدم الكاتب على الانتحار بعد ما أودعه من عذوبة وجمال في هذا النص المرهف....
لكنني تنبهت في لمحة خاطفة بأن ما كان يتلاشى من مجال رؤية الفتاة أشياء يصعب التخلي عنها ، كأن يقتطع رأس حبيبها فجأة ، وهذا يعني العجز عن رؤية ما هو جوهرياً في حياتها، واظن بأنها مهما تتبعت حدسها أو صنعت بمخيلتها الجزء المفقود ، لن يمكنها التعايش مع هذا الوضع طويلاً ، سيتسلل اليأس اليها لامحال....
لربما كان ذلك ناقوس الخطر الذي ينذر بانتحار الكاتب والذي قد ترددت اصداءه بأعماق قلبه ولم يتمكن من الفرار منه.....
Author 6 books254 followers
October 26, 2019
"Oddly, underlying the strengthened sense of her reality was at the same time an increased anxiety about the possibility that she was a fiction."

Kawabata's final, unfinished novel is a strange experience, like staring into the eye of a duck. That he never finished is both frustrating and intriguing, for in its unpolished form one can get a sense of what K's writing mechanism was and how much he stripped down initial drafts. I say this because the structure of "Dandelions" is very strange. It is, unlike his other novels, mostly dialogue, much thicker dialogue than he ever wrote. One can't help but wonder that he would've gutted his initial beast into the sleeker, emaciated beauties that characterize everything else he wrote.
It comes across a little clunky, but it is fascinating nonetheless. Most of the novel is the conversation between a young man and his girlfriend's mother after they've dropped the girlfriend off at a rural mental institution because the girlfriend has started to cease seeing people's faces.
I think that's probably enough to hook you. It's dark and weird and lovely, like all Kawabata and the utter lack of an ending (it doesn't end abruptly at all) is in keeping with how he ended most of his novels, that is, with no endings.
Profile Image for Tessa Nadir.
Author 3 books360 followers
June 14, 2023
Dupa ce i s-a decernat premiul Nobel pentru literatura Kawabata nu a reusit sa mai scrie din cauza starii sale de sanatate. Sinuciderea bunului sau prieten, Yukio Mishima, i-a agravat si mai mult conditia, astfel ca ultimul sau mare roman, "Papadiile", ramane neterminat si va aparea postum.
Eroina Ineko este condusa de catre mama si iubitul ei, Hisano, la o casa de nebuni din Ikuta, situat pe o colina langa mare si in incinta unui templu. Peisajul din jur este frumos si calmant pentru nervii bolnavilor, mai ales ca este inconjurat chiar si iarna de papadii.
Ca o particularitate, celor internati in ospiciu li se permite ca la ore fixe sa traga de clopotul templului, sunetul acestuia fiind considerat ca un mijloc de terapie pentru ei, prin care sa-si reverse frustrarile si pornirile.
Dupa ce o interneaza pe Ineko, mama si iubitul acesteia pornesc spre casa, acompaniati fiind de bataia clopotului, ca si cand Ineko i-ar chema inapoi disperata. Acestia trag la un han si incep sa discute despre cat de oportuna a fost internarea fetei, mai ales ca iubitul ei credea ca ar fi putut s-o vindece prin dragostea lui. Mama insa a fost sceptica si s-a opus.
Din pacate textul este neterminat si nu vom afla niciodata ce s-a intamplat cu Ineko si cu povestea de dragoste dintre ea si Hisano.
In ceea ce priveste boala lui Ineko, aceasta este foarte rara si ciudata, denumindu-se "cecitate fata de corpul uman". Aceasta se manifesta sporadic prin 'disparitia' din campul vizual a corpului celui de langa bolnav. Pur si simplu nu-l mai poate vedea. Ca o observatie, descrierea facuta de catre editura mi s-a parut gresita, afirmand ca Ineko ar fi oarba. Consider ca starea ei se datoreaza unei probleme neurologice si ea poate sa vada perfect in rest.
Foarte interesanta mi s-a parut maniera in care Kawabata a ales sa scrie romanul - asa cum ea nu-i poate vedea pe cei din jur, nici cei doi, internata fiind, nu o mai pot vedea si se tot intreaba si-si tot imagineaza ce face.
Naratiunea mi s-a parut specifica autorului, la care sunt mai importante lucrurile care nu ni se zic, detaliile care nu se pot vedea si este vital pentru cititor sa citeasca printre randuri.
Mentionez ca exemplarul meu are la un moment dat un numar dublu de pagini inserat - de la 96 se reiau cele de la 81. Din fericire, se continua apoi firesc si nu pierdem nimic din restul povestii. Glumind aici, am putea spune ca daca autorul ne-a vaduvit de o parte a povestii sale, editura ne-a dat ceva de doua ori.
In final atasez cateva citate care ne releva intelepciunea si maniera elevata prin care gandesc si vorbesc personajele (plus la sfarsit doua citate de Balzac despre femei si casnicie):
"Se patrunde lesne in lumea lui Buddha, se patrunde anevoie in lumea demonilor."
"Un ospiciu este un put adanc pe fundul caruia se depun si incep sa clocoteasca otravurile sufletului omenesc."
"In ultima vreme am ajuns sa ma tem de lucrurile care sunt langa noi si pe care totusi nu le putem vedea."
"Mi se pare ca a jeli moartea cuiva si a o lega astfel de propria persoana e doar o aroganta a celor vii."
"Dar cuvintele sunt doar cuvinte. Chiar daca dragostea s-a dezvoltat si a devenit mai complexa datorita lor, tot ele au dus uneori si la disparitia ei, furandu-i trainicia si imbatand-o cu vanitate artificiala. Evolutia cuvantului a fost aliatul dragostei dintre barbati si femei si totodata dusmanul ei. Chiar si azi, iubirea se ascunde de cuvant, in locuri adanci."
"Femeia de 40 de ani face totul pentru tine. Cea de 20 insa nu face nimic." (Balzac, Physiologie du mariage)
"Faceti-va sotia asa cum v-o doriti, iar ea va fi fericita. Barbatul care nu poate face o femeie dupa placul sau, acela nu e barbat." (Balzac, Physiologie du mariage)
Profile Image for Ivy-Mabel Fling.
603 reviews43 followers
January 28, 2020
As far as I can tell (because as yet I have only read two books by this author), nothing happens in Mr Kawabata's books. Still, they have something magnetic about them - the tense but polite atmosphere is probably what fascinates me most. Not to be recommended to those who are easily bored but quite amazing for those who are satisfied with discussions about who might be ringing the bell at the mental hospital. There is nothing strident or flamboyant about this book but I shall certainly be returning to it at some time in the future.
Profile Image for emily.
600 reviews521 followers
August 6, 2024
‘Dandelions grew among the weeds. Their leaves spread wide and low, thrusting aside the hardy growth around them. Full of vitality, and large for dandelions, they radiated in all directions. You wondered—whether the dandelions in this region were stronger, more determined to live, than those elsewhere. They were all already producing buds; some had bloomed, with three or even four flowers—the petals uncommonly thick, their yellow unusually deep.’

Better than expected, but not a lot better. Avoided Japanese reads (to make more space and time for other texts in translation) for quite a bit of time and then returned to it with (a) Kawabata? Not ideal. Simply judging from the way they look (physically, etc.) — does he not look uncannily like Kafka? Nothing else is Kafka-esque about Kawabata though (make of that what you will; I like Kafka, but I don't think I like Kawabata as much). If I hadn’t been acquainted with the works of Mishima and Soseki, I might be able to appreciate his work more. But because I’ve had those experiences prior to him/this, I find his writing/approach/ideas (now excuse the cliché) subpar at best. I can’t say his writing is terrible, but I also can’t say that it’s fully worth one’s time.

Fuller RTC later.

‘Here we have the emptiness, the nothingness, of the Orient. My own works have been described as works of emptiness, but it is not to be taken for the nihilism of the West.’
Profile Image for NenaMounstro.
325 reviews1,336 followers
June 26, 2024
Para empezar es un libro que no tiene final como tal. Kawabata muere antes de terminarla y nunca sabremos qué le pasó a Ineko, si se curó, si fue feliz. Ineko, su madre y su novio y el fantasma del padre son los personajes de esta novela que más que ellos lo que importa son las preguntas que se hacen que desencadenan el flujo de conciencia. Y lo que más me gustó es como Kawabata tiene a un tercer personaje (Ineko) pero que solo la conocemos a través de la mirada de los otros dos. Ineko se queda siendo un misterio

Ineko tiene “ceguera del cuerpo” una condición que la mamá cree que es por un trauma infantil mientras que los demás ceeen que es un tema neurólogico. A Ineko se le desaparecen las caras, los hombros, o los objetos por un momento. El novio cree que la piefr salvar solo con casarse con ella, la madre no.

Qué persona tan diferente eres cuando tu mamá te ve con sus ojos y qué persona tan diferente eres cuando tu novio te ve con sus ojos.

Más que gustarme el
Contenido del libro me gustó la manera en cómo los personajes incómodamente interactuaron durante 24 horas que fue lo que duró la
Novela.
Profile Image for ريوف.
24 reviews32 followers
March 2, 2019
الرواية التي انتحر كاواباتا قبل أن يتمّها، تبدو مكتملة وقادرة ببعض من مسودّتها على أن تصف ضمن الأعمال العظيمة الرائعة. عدم انتهائه من كتابتها لم يشعرني بنقصٍ فيها، ربّما لأنني بشكل ما انشغلت بما هو موجود منها عمّا غاب، حتى أنني لفرط الانشغال بعد أن قلبت آخر صفحة لم أفكّر فيما كان سيحدث بعد ذلك ووضعتها جانبًا مأخوذة بفرط الرقة التي تناول فيها الحب، الصلات الإنسانيّة، الغياب وأثر الغياب، الاختلاف في حب الإنسان عينه وما تخلّفه طبيعة هذا الحب من اختلاف في معرفة هذا الإنسان أيضًا، طبيعة الحب وما تتيحه من امكانات الوصول وفي الوقت ذاته الاستعصاء على القرب والاتصال مهما بلغ تدفق المشاعر وشدّتها، القرارات التي "يقترفها" المرء بايعاز من هذا الحب، حتى يكاد يكون الشعور بالذنب جرّاء هذه القرارات لصيقًا به، ويكاد يكون تلازم الحب والذنب ثيمة جوهريّة في الرواية. الرقة التي تناول فيها البصيرة والذاكرة ومدى وثوقيّة الأخيرة، الوحدة والخوف والعائلة وما أبقاهن هنا، بعد فظاعة ما حدث.

انتحر كاواباتا عام ١٩٧٢م قبل أن يتم هذه الرواية، كان قد نشر ما نُشِر من الرواية في مجلة (Shincho) على هيئة حلقات بين عامي ١٩٦٤ و١٩٦٨ حين حصل على جائزة نوبل في الأدب، وتوقف بعد ذلك. لا أعرف أين كانت ستتجه لكن يبدو أنه كان سيختار عنوانًا متعلقًا بالعمى بدلًا من هندباء بريّة، ليس عمى الجسد الذي صُوِّر في الرواية بشكل خيالي لا يشبه حقيقة عمى الجسد في الواقع، العمى بشكل عام، فالشخصيات الثلاثة التي بدت في هذه المسودة معميّة دائمًا عن شيء ما، وإن كانت الحال أشد غرابة واستفحالًا مع إينكو. باب التأويل فيها واسع وهذا ما أحببته أيضًا. الرواية رائعة بالقدر الذي جعلني في منتصفها أقول لو أن بقيّتها كان عاديًا فقد كفاها ما سبق من جمال. أشبه ما تكون بقصيدة.

الترجمة بدورها جمال هائل ومنفصل.

Profile Image for Raluca Oana.
74 reviews33 followers
February 3, 2025
Am ales această carte pentru challenge-ul #cititorcalator. Când am ales această carte nu mă așteptam să fie una neterminată.

Însă, chiar dacă această carte nu a fost terminată, pot să spun că mi-a plăcut destul de mult povestea până în punctul în care se află.

O avem în prim plan pe Ineko o adolescentă care, în urma unei traume, se presupune că a dezvoltat o ciudată boală neurologică, denumită cecitate (o boală care afectează nervii oculari, cauzând incapacitatea de a vedea corpurile umane).

În urma acestei boli, mama ei împreună cu iubitul ei o internează într-un spital de nebuni.

Astfel că, după ce o lasă acolo, au remușcări și nu sunt siguri dacă au făcut bine ceea ce au făcut.

Din cât am citit, se observă o iubire de mamă, care ar face orice ca fiica ei să fie bine, chiar și să o interneze într-un spital de nebuni. Dar, de asemenea și iubirea pe care i-o poartă iubitul acesteia, astfel că ar fi în stare să o ia de nevastă, chit că are probleme.

Fiind o carte neterminată, nu știu exact unde ajunge acțiunea și ce urmează să facă personajele. Dacă iubirea pe care i-o poartă Hisano va putea să o salveze pe Ineko. Asta nu o să avem de unde știi, însă autorul ne-a lăsat pe noi, cititorii să oferim un răspuns.

Păpădiile sunt expuse în această poveste, în preajma ospiciului. Mă gândesc eu ca o priveliște frumoasă pentru oamenii de acolo.
P.S.: autorul nu a mai apucat să termine cartea fiindcă s-a sinucis 🥺

4/5 ⭐️
Profile Image for Mihaela Beresteanu.
97 reviews4 followers
October 26, 2021
Efectiv, mă declar îndrăgostită de literatura japoneză datorită acestui roman, chiar dacă a fost abandonat și nefinisat de autor din cauza traumei psihologice obținute în urma sinuciderii prietenului său, care a condus peste 4 ani la propriul suicid.
De ce păpădie? Pentru că acțiunea are loc într-un oraș liniștit, luminos și cald ca o păpădie, singur fiind împânzit de păpădii, unde surpindem ceva complet antitetic lui, un spital de nebuni, construit pe ruinele unui vechi templu budist, clopotul căruia, încă existent, fiind unica forma prin care pacienții își mai fac auzit strigătul, și clinchetul căruia informează medicii despre starea de sănătate a bolnavilor.
Romanul este metafora lumii dintre existent și inexistent, între prezență și absență, centrul atenției fiind însuși un personaj invizibil și absent. Evenimentele se petrec în mare parte aici și acum, cu excepția amintirilor evocate de personajele antrenate în dialog. Apropo, întreg romanul este un dialog constant ce nu se divizează pe capitole, un dialog între mama și iubitul protagonistei figurate, care are ca scop convigerea reciprocă și impunerea propriilor principii prin felurite tactici psihologice.
Păcat, păcat că nu a fost finisat..
Profile Image for Abeer.
444 reviews151 followers
October 9, 2022
هي ثالث تجربة لي مع ياسوناري كاواباتا ، والقراءة الثانية للرواية التي لم يكملها وقرر إنهاء حياته إثر إصابته بالاكتئاب
لذا فهي تجربة أدبية لها خصوصية فريدة ، سواء في موضوعها وعنوانها العجيب الذي يحمل دلالة رمزية وإشارة إلى بطلته وهي أيضا مليئة بالصراعات النفسية داخل نفوس الثلاث أبطال في الرواية
دفعني العنوان أولا وقبل شراء الرواية إلى البحث عن معنى "هندباء " لأجد أنه عشب ينمو ذاتيا ، دون تدخل بشري ، ويظهر بكثرة على ضفاف الأنهار ، أو عند سفوح التلال والمرتفعات .
ربما كان كاواباتا يقصد بالهندباء هنا البطلة إينكو ، فتاة مراهقة ضعيفة وهشة مثل نبات الهندباء ، تلقي بها أمها في مكان ريفي هاديء ومعزول ، يذكرني بمنطقة الواحات هنا في مصر ، حيث أراضي شاسعة ممتدة على مساحات هائلة ، لا يشغل سكانها إلا مساحة صغيرة جدا منها ، يغلب على حياتهم الطابع القروي البسيط ، منازل قليلة متناثرة أقيم وسطها مستشفى للأمراض العقلية .
وكأن هؤلاء المرضى حكم عليهم ذويهم بالنفي والعزلة الأبدية وكأنهم مصابون بوباء قاتل ، فيقررون عزلهم رغبة في التخلص منهم أكثر من التطلع لشفائهم وانتظار عودتهم إلى أحضانهم .
"سيد هيسانو ، كان زوجي رجلاً قوياً ، عسكرياً لا يُحسن التصرف في مثل هذه الأمور .. ربما لم أعرف طوال حياتي تلك السعادة التي أشرت إليها في كلامك على النساء " .
جملة يمكن للقاريء من خلالها أن يستنتج مضمون الرواية الأخيرة الغير مكتملة لياسوناري كاواباتا ، بل أيضا يختار النهاية وفق رؤيته وخياله .
تلك الجملة قيلت على لسان أم البطلة التي تتحدث طول الرواية مع خطيب ابنتها عن ابنتها المريضة وعن غرابة حالتها المرضية وندرتها ، بعدما أودعاها مستشفى الأمراض العقلية.
الغريب أن كاوباتا أختار اسما لبطلته ومنحها دورا صغيرا مقارنة بمساحة دور أمها، التي اختار لها اسم " أم إينكو " فالبطلة إينكو المصابة بمرض عمى الجسد هي محور حديث الأم مع البطل حبيبها هيسانو، وهي البطلة التي اختار صفتها عنوانا لروايته "غير المكتملة " ولكن الحديث لا يجري بلسانها إلا عبر حديث الأم وهي تروي ذكرياتها معها .
ولأن الرواية مبتورة ، يضعنا كاواباتا أمام قارئه احتمالات كثيرة ، أولها هل كان في نيته إضافة تفاصيل أكثر عن العلاقة بين هيسانو وإينكو ، هل أيضا لم يدركه الوقت ليحدثنا عن النقطة الفاصلة في علاقة الأم بابنتها والتي ربما تسببت في إصابة الفتاة المراهقة بمرض يجعلها تفقد البصر جزئيا ، لذا فهي من وجهة نظر الأم لن تصلح لإقامة علاقة زوجية ناجحة ، إذ من المحتمل ألا ترى جسد حبيبها أثناء العلاقة الحميمية .
لا يجب أن ننسى الفترة الزمنية التي كتبت فيها الرواية ، وهي أواخر الستينات ، عقب انتهاء الحرب العالمية بعقدين كاملين ، فمن المؤكد أن المجتمع الياباني في ذلك الوقت كان محكوما بالعادات والتقاليد المحافظة نوعا ما ، مقارنة به في العصر الحالي .
ربما هذا ما يفسر لنا العلاقة المعقدة بين الأم والإبنة ، وعن نفسي لمست من حديث أم إينكو خليطا من مشاعر الغيرة وحب فرض السيطرة ، وإحكام الخناق ، الذي تبرره الأمهات بخوفهن على بناتهن ، وهو في الحقيقة شعوراً خفيا يتولد لديها عندما تشعر بالحسرة على نفسها هي السيدة الجميلة التي فقدت زوجها وهي مازالت شابة ، فتحاول التفريق بين الابنة وحبيبها ، وتزيد غيرتها بداخلها ، مما ينتج عنه سلوكا عدوانيا غريبا نابعا من منطقة اللاوعي ، يدفعها دون أن تشعر بأن تحاول تغيير مشاعر الخطيب إلى الكراهية والنفور بأن تشعره بأنه مقدم على خطوة متهورة بالزواج من فتاة مضطربة نفسيا أو مجنونة .
نجدها مثلا تعبر عن تضارب مشاعرها تجاه ابنتها عقب سماعها لصوت الناقوس الصادر من المستشفى " لا أدري . ربما لا ينقل الناقوس بطريقة مثالية مشاعر المريض الذي يقرعه . ربما لأنني لاأحب ابنتي قدر ما تحبّها أنت ، سيد هيسانو" .
**
نجد أن كاواباتا وقبل انتحاره عام 1972 ، وضع أعمدة روايته ، البداية ثم الحوار الكاشف بمنتهى الوضوح عن دوافع الأم لإيداع ابنتها المستشفى ، والذي يكشف لنا حقائق عن أب من المقاتلين الشجعان في الحرب العالمية الثانية ، تجرع مرارة الهزيمة ، ولكنه أفرغ عاطفته كلها في وقت قصير على ابنته الصغيرة فأغدق عليها من حنانه قبل أن يلقى مصيرا عجيبا ، تاركة ابنته تعاني عدة ويلات ، ويل فراق الأب وويل قسوة الأم الذي لمسته من خلال حديثها مع خطيب ابنتها ، فقد وضع الكاتب بين سطور جملها الحوارية حقيقة مشاعرها تجاه الابنة ، ربما هي من أدخلت إليها شعور المسئولية عن وفاة الأب ، مع اعترافها بأنها كانت تغار عليه بشدة ، وربما غيرتها هي ما دفعها لسكب كل مشاعر العجز والألم على كتفي ابنتها ، لتشعرها بأنها غير مرغوبة دافعة بها إلى هوة سحيقة من اليأس ، تسبب لها في فقدان البصر الجزئي الذي من المرجح أن يكون سببه نفسيا بحتا وأنه حدث بسبب اضطراب في عصب العين المسئول عن الإبصار .
فنجد مثلا أنها أثناء حديثها مع هيسانو تريد أن تخيفه من احتمالية أن يصل المرض بابنتها حد خنقه وإنهاء حياته ، وأكثر مشهد أعجبني عندما كشف كاواباتا عن دافع الغيرة داخلها عندما دخل كل منهما جزءا منفصلا من الغرفة المشتركة داخل النزل ، أرادت خلع ملابسها استعدادا للنوم ، فقالت لنفسها :" لا سبب يستدعي ألا أخلعها الليلة ، كيف تقلقني مثل هذه الأشياء وأنا بهذا العمر .. إن من ينام في الجزء الآخر من الغرفة خلف الباب الجرار خطيب ابنتي ، كانت إينكو وحدها تملأ قلبه ، كيف لا يراني أنا أمها كامرأة ؟ وكيف صرت أكلم نفسي هكذا لابد أن مساً أصاب عقلي " . فكرت أم إينكو أنها باتت تفكر كيف كان هيسانو يراها .
ربما انشغال كاواباتا بالهموم التي اجتاحت الأسر اليابانية ، وبما طرأ على الآباء والأمهات من شطحات جنون كانت لها آثار مدمرة على نفوس الأبناء ربما هو ما أصابه بنوبة الغضب والسخط الشديدة التي جذبته لمصيره المؤلم !
هذا ما شعرت به في قراءتي لضجيج الجبل والتي كان بطلها رجلا تخطى الستين ، ويمر باضطرابات نفسية تنعكس في سلوكه الغريب غير المقبول .
Profile Image for Gardy (Elisa G).
358 reviews113 followers
March 14, 2019
È risaputo che Kawabata fosse uno scrittore incapace di lasciare andare i suoi romanzi, sempre pronto a correggerne anche le minime asperità con aggiustamenti e riedizioni continue.
Quando si suicidò sulla sua scrivania venne rinvenuta l'ennesima versione del suo capolavoro, Il paese delle nevi, che dalle prime bozze alla sua morte il premio Nobel non smise mai di modificare.

La pubblicazione in inglese di Dandelions consegna quindi al lettore italiano un romanzo differente rispetto alle versioni riviste e profondamente meditate che siamo abituati a leggere. È un Kawabata allo stato grezzo (un'espressione quasi ossimorica data l'ossessivo lavoro di cesellatura che sta dietro ogni singola frase della sua produzione), incompiuto, talvolta incongruo, in cui manca la stratificazione delle opere precedenti.

Eppure Dandelions è un romanzo bellissimo, pur essendo poco più che una bozza pubblicata a capitoli su varie riviste letterarie, interrotta tra l'altro anche da un lungo ricovero ospedaliero dell'autore.
Il romanzo è ricolmo di tutti gli elementi caratterizzanti la scrittura di Kawabata e a un livello altissimo: la spanna temporale brevissima in cui si innestano continuamente flashback sempre più articolati e rivelatori, il cromatismo allegorico, una giovane donna amata e amante i cui desideri e pensieri costituiscono motivo di speculazione per i protagonisti del romanzo.

Certo le parti dialogate tra i due personaggi principali (la madre e l'amante di Ineko, una giovane donna costretta a un ricovero in una clinica specializzata per via di una rara e bizzarra patologia psicologica) talvolta si avvitano così tanto su se stesse da essere esasperanti, ma ci sono così tanti grandiosi passaggi a punteggiare il romanzo come bocche di leone che si finisce per perdonare tante ripetizioni e lungaggini.

Da lettrice appassionata di Kawabata e del folto circolo di autori novecenteschi morti suicidi in Giappone non mi hanno stupito i riferimenti ossessivi al suicidio e alla morte, mentre invece sono rimasta colpita da quelli in cui Kawabata riflette sull'impossibilità della lingua di descrivere e racchiudere i sentimenti. [...]
Profile Image for Steven R. Kraaijeveld.
553 reviews1,921 followers
December 19, 2021
"'You were so quick to cry when you were little,' she said. 'You used to feel sorry for the camellia blossoms when they dropped, so you would gather them up. Put them in envelopes, between the pages of a book. I never once saw you sweep the flowers up and throw them away.'" (78)
Left unfinished at the time of his death in 1972, Dandelions is Kawabata's final novel. It has only three main characters: Ineko, who has been diagnosed with somagnosia (a condition that leaves her suddenly unable to see certain bodies); Kuno, who is Ineko's lover, and whose body Ineko frequently cannot see; and Ineko's mother. The novel begins when Kuno and Ineko's mother have just left Ineko at a madhouse in a town next to the Ikuta River, whose banks are covered with dandelions; what follows is a long conversation between Kuno and Ineko's mother, interspersed with a number of flashbacks related to Ineko's past. The novel is clearly unfinished, but there is enough in it to make it worth reading. The beginning is especially good—the conversation between Kuno and Ineko's mother as they walk away from the madhouse is wonderful. There's a Japanese phrase—tōne no sasu kane (a bell with a distant ring)—which I think captures the novel well.
Profile Image for Bookaholic.
802 reviews830 followers
Read
June 10, 2015
Multă senzualitate și tandrețe e de găsit în romanele construite în jurul conceptului specific culturii japoneze tradiţionale – mono no awere –, potrivit căruia secretul vieţii constă în puterea de a vedea şi de a savura frumuseţea efemerului, de a putea simţi freamătul vieţii pe suprafaţa lucrurilor… Flori de cireș, păpădii, licurici, bătaia mereu alta a clopotelor care sunt menite să spele păcatele și emoțiile distructive, priviri şi suflete care se hrănesc cu frumuseţea „nimicurilor” trecătoare. Uimire, celebrare a vremelniciei și a hotarului absenței.


O astfel de poveste este și Păpădiile, romanul neterminat al lui Kawabata, început în 1964 și abandonat în 1968, după primirea premiului Nobel autorul renunțând la scrierea acestuia, fiind puternic marcat și de sinuciderea prietenului său, Mishima. Până la propriul suicid din 1972 nu l-a mai reluat, rămânând neterminat, sau mai degrabă nesfârșit.

Romanul este povestea metaforică a lumii scindate între văzut și nevăzut, între prezență și absență, în centrul său găsindu-se chiar un personaj absent. Într-un oraș luminos și cald precum o păpădie, împânzit de altfel de păpădii, se află ceva care, în aparență, nu i se potrivește: un spital pentru nebuni, construit în incinta unui templu budist. Clopotul pe care îl bat bolnavii e singura formă prin care le transmit celorlalți realitatea existenței lor, Kawabata reluând aici această imagine a clopotelor prezentă și în alte scrieri, imagine care se înscrie în sfera frumuseților efemere cu reverberații în lumea lăuntrică. Prin sunetul clopotelor, nebunii anunță că există, deși ceilalți aud doar un clopot care bate ora exactă. Ecourile vin însă din spatele suprafețelor, ideea găsindu-și la un moment dat o sferă mai largă de semnificații: „Cu toții, în mod normal, ne străduim să ținem sub control nebunul dinăuntru. Nu-i nimic rău dacă iese la suprafață când se bat clopotele de la temple”. Avem fiecare niște acuzatori în suflete care bat clopotele.

Tânăra Ineko este adusă aici de către mama ei și de către iubit: suferea de cecitate față de corpul uman, o boală stranie, „în care refuzi să vezi o parte din tine, sau din persoana iubită, sau din propria-ți viață. Ca și cum acel loc profund rănit din inimă e atins de orbire”. E o boală a cărei cauză nu poate fi stabilită. Nu se știe dacă la baza ei stă trauma morții tatălui ori pur și simplu delicatețea și subtilitatea sunt cauza bolii. Brusc, din când în când, dispar bucăți ale lumii din jurul lui Ineko. Începe cu mingea de ping-pong, pe care o lovește totuși fără a o vedea, și culminează cu dispariție trupului iubitului în momentul actului sexual. Bărbatul îi iubește boala, însă mama este disperată și hotărăște să o interneze într-un spital de nebuni. Tot ce urmează este dialogul dintre mamă și amant, imediat după ce o lasă pe Ineko la spital, raportarea lor la situație fiind diferită. Vocea lui Ineko nu se mai aude. Tânăra devine un personaj pierdut, nevăzut. Trăiește doar în dialogul tensionat deseori, discuțiile dintre cei doi trezind amintiri sau deschizând întrebări răscolitoare: Delicatețea poate duce la nebunie? Ne salvează perspectiva, modul diferit de a vedea lucrurile? Ușurarea conștiinței ține de interpretare? Sunt legate între ele nenorocirile? Autoacuzatorii sunt nebunii cei mai slabi și cei mai puri? Filosofia înseamnă a gândi plecând de la ceva ce ai simțit? De ce nu vedem ceea ce ar fi firesc să vedem? Bunătatea poate fi un act de cruzime? (continuarea cronicii: http://www.bookaholic.ro/papadiile-ro...)
Profile Image for La gata lectora.
421 reviews332 followers
September 11, 2024
“— ¡Pero qué arrogante es su fatalismo! Su relación de causa y efecto, su idea del destino, es tremendamente presuntuosa. Digamos que es la petulancia de quien sobreestima sus capacidades.”

Abandonado a la mitad.

Novela póstuma inacabada editada con arreglos por su yerno.

Es una conversación entre yerno y suegra después de dejar a la hija en un sanatorio para curar su enfermedad de ceguera del cuerpo.

Aunque se tratan temas filosóficos de la vida en las conversaciones que tienen se hace muy redundante y pesado… también hay que tener en cuenta cuándo y dónde vivió Kawabata porque algunas de sus ideas están muy desfasadas.

Creo que tienes que ser muy fan de lo japonés y de Kawabata en especial para que lo disfrutes o estar en un momento de tu vida que te permita ponerle atención, paciencia y una mirada flexible,

Yo soy muy fan de la literatura japonesa pero de Kawabata sólo he leído Mil grullas que me gustó bastante. Quizás sea esta novela en concreto. Seguirė explorando la obra del escritor nobel.

(2/5)⭐️⭐️ un poco peñazo 🤣

Profile Image for Lucia Nieto Navarro.
1,307 reviews344 followers
April 10, 2024
Tras recibir el Premio Nobel de Literatura, el autor no pudo seguir escribiendo, y dejo esta obra inconclusa, apareciendo años después como póstuma.
Ineko es llevada por su madre y su novio a un manicomio en una ciudad tranquila, luminosa y cálida, como describe un diente de león, un manicomio construido sobre las ruinas de un antiguo templo budista cuya campana les sirve a los enfermos de tratamiento.
Tras ser admitida, tanto su madre como su novio discuten si fue oportuno o no hospitalizarla, el motivo, una enfermedad llamada “ceguera del cuerpo”, que se manifiesta de forma que dejas de ver el cuerpo de la persona que esta al lado. El novio está convencido que podría haberla curado pero su madre se opone.
Me ha gustado la narrativa del autor, un autor donde los detalles no se ven y es importante leer entre líneas. Una historia que es un dialogo constante, sin capítulos y que el hecho que no este acabada es un poco frustrante y sobretodo intrigante.
Profile Image for Erin.
34 reviews
January 17, 2018
I liked this book, but it was not very easy to read. To read this is to listen to an ongoing circular conversation between 2 people over the course of a day, which is interesting because it made it so apparent that unlike many books, Kawabata captured beautifully what real conversation sounds like. It has the appearance of not being carefully constructed with a coherent narrative. Characters repeat themselves and argue the same topic while coming to different conclusions without acknowledging or realizing it. Careful construction is not a bad thing, but it does say something for alternate possibilities for telling a story.
Profile Image for Chris.
1,986 reviews28 followers
February 13, 2018
Emmerich has made some nice contributions to English translation of Japanese prose and poetry, but this is not one of them. This translation feels overall too academic, inartful, and altogether untrue to the original. With Dandelions, there are too few things about which I'm happy that Emmerich does and too many things that he does with which I disagree.

In my view, the major flaw: One thing that I've always admired about Kawabata's writing is how seamlessly he can weave differing narrative points of view in a given passage, or even a given scene, without disrupting the reader, and while remaining in an omniscient point of view. Often, if within the text, Kawabata will trigger such a change in viewpoint through static, simple, consistent imagery and/or a character deep in thoughts that lead out to their point of view or version of events. (Ok, and sometimes it's more abrupt, as in The Lake.)

The problem with Emmerich's version of this text is that the point of view seems never to shift as it should - it's far too omniscient, constant, and even rigid. Compare the voice at the beginning of the book with the scene surrounding, for example, page 70.

Anyway, without a strong, flexible narrative voice (or, maybe, voices?), this nuance in narrative perspective is all but lost to the reader. And that's really a shame. Is something like that easy to translate into English? No, I can't imagine that it is. But Seidensticker seemed able to work in the feeling nicely in a number of his translations of Kawabata's works, so it's possible to achieve it to some extent.

Maybe someday someone will take the time to translate たんぽぽ into something that doesn't feel like a polished document in a time capsule, but a living, breathing text. Maybe that someone will be Emmerich in 20-30 years, who knows? I think he could certainly do it. He just didn't do it here.
Profile Image for Stil de scriitor.
611 reviews160 followers
February 24, 2025
O temă a cărții ar fi nebunia, alienarea, deoarece unul dintre personaje este trimis la un fel de ospiciu de către mamă și iubit. Pe lângă nebunie, mai avem tristețea, singurătatea, iubirea, moartea, iar toate astea combinate promit un roman aparte. Lucrurile nu  mi s-au părut chiar așa, pentru că mă așteptam la mult mai mult. Stilul cărții este derutant, ambiguu, discuțiile dintre personaje vizează lucruri generale și cumva nu ești prea impresionat de ce anume citești. 

http://stildescriitor.ro/blog/2018/08...
Profile Image for Ana.
811 reviews716 followers
September 16, 2016
Nu inteleg: autorul cartii acesteia a primit premiul Nobel pentru literatura. Nu inteleg de ce. Nici nu stiu cum sa scriu o recenzie pentru lucrarea de fata pentru ca nu m-a impresionat cu nimic. Dialogul este simplu, povestea nu este atat de interesanta, iar lectura este mult prea laxa pentru ceea ce as considera eu un autor demn de Nobel. Este primul autor japonez care a primit premiul, si cred ca o sa mai citesc alte carti de-ale lui ca sa gasesc scriitura pentru care a fost aclamat.
Profile Image for Ina Groovie.
415 reviews324 followers
February 11, 2024
Cada vez que leo literatura japonesa me preparo para leer extensas descripciones bucólicas y a quedar un poco fuera de la conversación. Kawabata resultó ser más un narrador occidental, cinematográfico y sumamente filosófico.

Del argumento sabemos que Ineko sufre de “ceguera de cuerpo” (deja de ver objetos y personas drásticamente) y ha sido internada en un manicomio por su madre y novio. Lo que subyace esta internación es un diálogo extenso y acucioso de la madre y su yerno, quienes parecen estar “Esperando a Godot”. Hay conversaciones milimétricas y puntillistas sobre todo tipo de cosas y con maestría el autor logra volver de las digresiones.

Se sabe que el final es abierto o inconcluso, porque el autor falleció mientras lo escribía, pero hay una sutileza en lo interrumpido que aporta a la tersura del texto.
Profile Image for Zahraa Maytham.
358 reviews111 followers
December 13, 2019
جميلة ودافئة وحزينة. وهي أيضاً من أفضل ما قرأت هذا العام. ورغم عدم إكتمالها بدت مكتملة تماماً ولا تشوبها شائبة. فكرة الرواية جميلة، والحوار فيها رقيق جداً ، حتى حزنها عذب. وترجمتها رائعة جداً وزادت الرواية جمالاً.

قرأتها في جلسة واحدة ، وشعرت بالحنين إليها فور إنتهائي منها.
Profile Image for Sephreadstoo.
656 reviews37 followers
January 9, 2024
IL RINTOCCO DELLA CAMPANA

"Asomatognosia": un disturbo neurologico caratterizzato dal non riconoscere una parte del proprio o altrui corpo.
Prima di leggere questo libro non conoscevo il sopraccitato disturbo di cui soffre la giovane Ineko, che per la sua asomatognosia viene affidata dalla madre e dal fidanzato a una clinica psichiatrica situata in un villaggio in riva al mare circondato da denti di leone.

Per tutto il tragitto sulla via del ritorno, la madre di Ineko e il fidanzato Hisano discutono in modo quasi sconclusionato: la madre infatti riconosce la malattia della figlia che le ricorda anche del marito perso tragicamente, mentre Hisano pensa che sposando la fidanzata la possa guarire.

Il dialogo tra i due si alterna tra realta' e atmosfera onirica, accompagnato dei rintocchi della campana che Ineko suona dal tempio dell'ospedaale, ricordando ai suoi cari

Un vero peccato che sia un'opera incompiuta, "Denti Di Leone" infatti si interrompe, brutale come uno dei rintocchi della campana che risveglia nella madre e il fidanzato di Ineko rimpianti e ricordi, ma lascia dietro di se' un senso di sospensione quasi catartico.
Profile Image for Yassmin.
Author 2 books109 followers
February 9, 2020
لا أظن أن كاواباتا قام بكتابة تلك الرواية كرسالة انتحار! فمن يود الانتحار لا يكتب الرسائل.. هو فقط ينتحر! رسائل الانتحار ليست سوى استغاثات، هي أحد أوجه التمسك بالحياة..وليس بالموت!
فإذن ما حدث هو العكس! ما قام كاواباتا بإدراكه اثناء صياغته لتلك الرواية قد يكون هو ما أدى به إلى الانتحار!
ما صاغه كاواباتا هنا هو حديث نفسٍ مطول اتخذ شكل رواية هذيانية صيغت في صورة حوار طويل يمتد بطول يومٍ كامل لم ينقطع فيه الحديث بين أم وخطيب ابنتها التي اودعاها مصحة لعلاج المجانين ذلك لأنها قد أصيبت بداء "عمى الجسد" والذي فسر بالرواية تفسيرًا خياليًا رمزيًا وهو فقدان القدرة على رؤية جسد من تحب!
مزج كاواباتا في روايته بين ثلاث خطوط محورية..
الخط الاول يتمثل في فقدان التجسد المتمثل في العمى وعلاقته بالحب، والموت. في محاولة اظنها روحانية فلسفية اراد من خلالها ارساء قاعدة هامة ان الحب كالموت يفقدنا القدرة على تجسيد من نحب! فنحن عندما نتيم حبًا لا نرى الجسد وانما تختفي الأبعاد في حضرة الروح، تمامًا كأثر الموت..حين يختفى الجسد عن الساحة تاركًا الأثر.. وأنا ممن يؤمنون مسبقًا بأن هناك علاقة حميمة ما بين أثر الحب واثر الموت..!
الخط الثاني؛ هو طغيان حضور الغائب واستمرار التواصل بينه وبين أحبابه أو بينه وبين الأحياء في حال كان ميتًا وعلاقة المشاعر بالطبيعة وتأثيرها عليها!
والخط الثالث؛ هو ميلودراما التناقض، فبينما تودع الابنة بالمصحة بسبب مرض "العمه" والذي لا يعد مرضًا ذهنيًا حقيقيًا! يظل من هم خارج المصحة يرون ويسمعون هلاوسًا مما لا وجود له ثم يطلق عليهم العقلاء! كذلك تناقض مفهوم الحب لدي الام والخطيب للفتاه..

الرواية ممتعة بقدر غرابتها، مكتملة برغم بترها، مفعمة بالمعاني بقدر هذيانيتها..
-ياسمين-
9-9-2019
Profile Image for Daniel Warriner.
Author 5 books72 followers
December 14, 2021
It’s impossible to trust any text that’s incomplete, and Kawabata’s novel The Dandelion (also Dandelions, Tanpopo) was published posthumously and unfinished (in 1972). An editor’s mindset kicked in while reading this (an exercise in itself), and I wonder if the author might have scrapped this ragged story if he’d lived longer. Polishing it would’ve done away with the repetition and inconsistency, but the whole thing doesn’t feel like it could be ironed out into anything on par with Kawabata’s other novels. Kafka died before finishing The Castle, but reading that you get a clear idea of where he was going with it. The Dandelion, on the other hand, comes across as half-baked.

Kawabata possibly realized it was a dud… There’s an exchange in the last few pages that starts with Ineko’s mother bringing up the phrase tōne no sasu kane—a bell with a distant ring. She says, “It’s a nice way to describe the sound of an old bell, don’t you think?” To which Ineko’s lover replies, “A distant ring. Yes, that’s nice, and you could say that about this conversation, too.” The book up to this point has mostly been this conversation, long and wandering, between the two. The mother, channeling Kawabata, I imagine, comes back with, “Don’t be ridiculous—not this random chatter.”

I agree.

There are some wonderful Kawabata-ish descriptions and sentences here, though. These make it worthwhile to read, but its lack of cohesion and rather stagnant plot make it unenjoyable overall.
Profile Image for Smiley .
776 reviews18 followers
March 13, 2020
World-famous as the first Japanese author awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1968, Yasunari Kawabata (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yasunar...) has since literarily been formidable to me with awe and respect; his fame encouraged me to find and read his own works including the other Japanese male and female authors' published short stories, novels, plays, etc. According to the list of his Selected Works on the cited website, only two of his novels remain unread, that is, The Scarlet Gang of Asakusa (1930, English trans. 2005) and One Arm (1964, English trans. 1969). Indeed, I have long looked forward to having and reading either new or second-hand copies and I can't help wondering when and where.

When I came across this book at first sight, I saw only a misty tree against a hill on the front cover and didn't know the title's meaning. The cover might suggest the vagueness of life as narrated on the three key characters in three heavily-dialogued parts: 1) Kizaki Ineko's mother and Ineko's fiance, Kuno [pp. 3-68] to Ineko and her mother [pp. 68-92], and Ineko's mother and Kuno [pp. 92-118]. The settings have shifted from the Ikuta Clinic and the river bank, the Kizaki's home, and the lodge where the mother and Kuno stay the night. The reason is that Ineko has been admitted in the psychiatric clinic to recover due to her somagnosia, having lost the ability to see things.

To continue . . .
Profile Image for Denisse.
545 reviews302 followers
December 24, 2024
Beautiful, very reflexive. I do believe the best thing one can do as part of our reading habit, is to explore different authors/stories. Kawabata was that out of my comfort zone read of the year and proudly I can say I loved it.


No se que tan bueno fue que iniciara con un libro inacabado del autor, ya que si se siente extraño el final (obviamente, no es un final porque nunca lo acabo). Pero lo que si puedo asegurar es que no me arrepiento. Me gusta tener por lo menos una lectura fuera de mis gustos normales por año y encontrar autores nuevos.

La historia nos habla sobre la "ceguera del cuerpo" y el texto que mas se quedo conmigo fue una posible definición que hace uno de los personajes sobre este termino como negarse a ver una parte de uno mismo o una parte del ser al que se ama. O sea una decisión involuntaria, una reacción hacia uno mismo u otro. Y si eso no es lo mas humano del mundo, nada lo es.

El libro es una platica interminable sobre esta ceguera e Ineko, quien la esta sufriendo, entre su madre y su prometido. Vale mucho la pena por las múltiples reflexiones que deja pero también por la hermosa prosa del autor. Cabe recalcar que el libro es algo viejo y nada occidental, van a encontrarse ciertos pasajes bastante conservadores para que vayan con la mente abierta.
Profile Image for S P.
615 reviews115 followers
September 15, 2020
"Already, the sand at the river’s mouth had taken on the colors of a winter evening. Those birds that had flown noiselessly overhead were nowhere to be seen now, and the faint gray horizon was shrouded by a vague, madder red haze. Whether the sky had bled downward or the placid sea had risen was unclear; either way, there was no border. The meager flow of the river emptying into the ocean, too, was a dull, color."
Profile Image for Jonathan yates.
234 reviews5 followers
December 25, 2017
This is a little piece of magic that will continue to make me believe in the power of literature to see the world as a bigger place. His attention to detail, both physical and emotional is unmatched.
Profile Image for Heronimo Gieronymus.
489 reviews149 followers
April 28, 2019
Yasunari Kawabata’s DANDELIONS belongs to a rarified category of novels left uncompleted on account of their author’s suicide. Perhaps the most recent book of some note to occupy this category is David Foster Wallace’s THE PALE KING, an absolutely fascinating novel, perhaps my very favourite book by Wallace, which I suspect has failed to receive the full appreciation it merits on account of folks having decided that it is incomplete. This raises a number of questions, not the least of which pertains to what we mean when we call a published work incomplete. It is almost invariably far from a simple matter, also tending to vary from instance to instance. Wallace seems to have left the manuscript for THE PALE KING intending for it to be published. This would seem to indicate that as far as he was concerned it was for all intents and purposes complete. The case with DANDELIONS seems a little thornier. There appear to remain some who surmise that Kawabata’s death was accident rather than suicide, that he did not intend to gas himself. Others point to his depression, his tendency to privately ruminate on his own death, and the profound affect upon him of his friend Mishima’s suicide two years before Kawabata would himself die. The novel left unfinished on account of suicide invites us to go hunting for clues, pieces of a nest of defeats. I think we want to find them. Perhaps we hope both to be comforted and upset. DANDELIONS doesn't seem to present the ideal vehicle for such pursuits. There was already Kawabata’s tendency to tinker protractedly, revising his own work over and over on an ongoing basis. His novels tended to take shape over time as he found ways to unify disparate stories that had been published hither and thither. It is not quite correct to say that his novels were first serialized, because the distinct pieces would appear over any number of years in journals and other venues that were not necessarily related to one another, and he would ultimately alter the individual works significantly so that they might coalesce in the form of an eventual novel. In his “Translator’s afterward” at the end of the New Directions edition of DANDELIONS, Michael Emmerich suggest that things were not all that much different with this final work. It had first appeared in the literary journal SHINCHŌ in the form of twenty-two installments between June of 1964 and October of 1968. Kawabata would not be dead until 1972. This is not the standard pedigree of works that we tend to declare incomplete. However, because of the way Kawabata revised and tinkered over time, Emmerich believes the author would have smoothed-down the perhaps somewhat unkempt manuscript before having done with it, handing it over to life as a novel. This particular beast, perhaps, is more decidedly feral than most of Kawabata’s novels, the groomer not having had time to adequately gussy it up. Emmerich believes that this helps explain one glaring temporal inconsistency in the piece, a passage where young Kizaki Ineko is depicted musing on the subject of a lover who at this point in time she probably hasn’t yet met (and who is certainly not yet her lover). I would contend that this particular bit of business comes off as something slightly more than a mere mistake though I suspect it is indeed also simply that (and one that might well have been corrected by Kawabata). It suggests a feverish indeterminacy and a problem with time that is also a problem relating to reality and its construction, a problem that is always going to be the novelist's while at the same time being that of any living person. At the heart of the human condition lies perplexity, and perplexity relates often as not to reality and its aberrations. As to the matter of the novel’s supposed incompleteness, looked at in something like standard terms, what are we to make of its ending? It is hard for me to imagine a more pointed and poetically exact final sentence; it seems to me that Kawabata’s would be quite simply impossible to improve upon. No, it does not help provide anything like standard closure, but it is absolutely perfect, beyond reproach. What we have, to my mind, is a novel that ends flawlessly and whose general misrule may possibly contribute to its considerable charm. DANDELIONS does not have chapters of sections, but there are three discreet breaks, serving as these do to interject one extremely significant temporal dislocation (making intelligible the above-mentioned problematic involving a lover with his foot, as it were, prematurely in the door). The novel begins with Kizaki Ineko's mother and her lover Kuno walking from a mental clinic on the grounds of a dilapidated temple where they have just left Ineko, to the nearby seaside town of Ikuta where they will seek lodging for the night. Ineko is suffering from “body blindness” or “somagnosia,” a condition which in her case means that her lover Kuno regularly becomes invisible to her, impossible for her to see. It is Ineko’s condition that strands her mother and her lover each in perplexity, volleying uncertain hypotheses to one another. Kuno would like to believe that Ineko has become blind from love and that his love might likewise restore her. It is supposed that this might be a blindness that “stems from some deep wound.” What wound? Kuno asks Ineko’s mother: “Doesn’t that happen with women occasionally, that they stop seeing who they’re with at the most intense moment of their loving?” Kuno’s mother has her own fears and suspicions. She frequently dwells on her daughter’s foundational childhood trauma, witnessing her father plunge to his death from a cliff. Harbingers cross the path of Kuno and Ineko’s mother. A crying tree, a white rat, a boy somehow in possession of the qualities of the dandelions that cover the banks of the Ikuta Rivers, symbols of springtime and rebirth. Later an image: “A flock of white herons over a mass of green.” At the lodge, Kuno will remember having seen a white dandelion as they walked. The inscrutable cuts through the world with a cold impersonal sovereignty. There is also a belief that the dead father, as a young man spiritually defeated by the Japanese surrender to America at the end of the Second World War, went off to take his own life and was salvaged by a spirit girl. Reality escapes classification and understanding, rejects the imposition of either reason or emotional need, though uncertainty can exacerbate that need. There is a beautiful passage about the limits of language and empirical judgment: “The progress of language is both friend to love between the sexes and its enemy. Such love abides, it seems, in the mysterious depths where language cannot reach. Perhaps it’s a slight exaggeration to say that the language of love is a stimulant, a drug; but whatever led us humans to create such a language, it was not life itself—which is the root of love—and therefore that language cannot engender the life that is the root of all else.” We are passengers of life, subordinate to its mysteries. We live in a condition of denial of which language is an extension, a false dominion. When the novel’s timeline leaps backward, Ineko’s mother recalls what in retrospect may have been the first sign of trouble, her daughter reporting in high school the experience of suddenly being unable to see a ping-pong ball in the middle of a competitive game, the incipient emergence of a destabilizing punctum. Jumping forward again, Kuno recalls Ineko having told him that his face had become a rainbow. He asked her what exactly he looked like. “You don’t need to know. You’re not looking at yourself—it’s me looking at you, and getting a sense of the kind of man you are.” What is suggested here is a clarity married to the dissolution of phenomenal reality, the reduction of the Other to the chimerical, something illusory, half-magic, and barely there. It is perhaps at the site of the amorous Other that the transitory inconsistency of the real acquires its sting, just as we can only truly mourn those we lose and not our own death. We are already fleeting before we are gone, our perceptions informed by the organs of a wayward and mortal being. In Kuno we find a figure striving to be tender in the face of his own lack of material consistency, his perplexity in part a product of the provisional nature of his own being. Kawabata was born in 1899, a striking time to be born, and the same year, as it happens, that produced Vladimir Nabokov. Perhaps the two things literary modernism introduced most forcefully were the condition of alienation and the spectre of the irreal into the domain of the everyday. The irreal is at the heart of Kawabata, but it does not serve fanciful ends, constituting not only an epistemological problematic but a heavy metaphysical weight. He is a subtle and dexterous literary craftsman, and his indebtedness to the spirit of haiku, with its understatement and focus on seasonal ebb, might at first suggest a gentility, but there can ultimately be no mistaking that it is the weight that ultimately asserts itself. The heaviness produces ache. We feel too much and too inexactly, we know almost nothing, and knowing at its best only comes to produce its own limits, its impasses. The assertion of love, its declaration, comes from a thing already in part the absence to which it is destined to someday almost entirely yield.
Profile Image for Jessica .
73 reviews1 follower
February 4, 2024
Spazio narrativo ridottissimo, probabilmente meno di 12 ore, il racconto è incentrato sull’analisi delle cause di una rara patologia psichiatrica. È un’analisi retrospettiva, che ripercorre la vita e i sentimenti dei protagonisti.
È l’ultimo romanzo di Kawabata, rimasto incompiuto; lo stile è diverso dalle precedenti opere che ho letto, e’ un romanzo più moderno, dove la cultura e le tradizioni del Giappone restano più sullo sfondo. L’ho trovato meno caratteristico, mi è piaciuto un po’ meno.
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