The Setting Sun

by Osamu Dazai, Donald Keene (Translator)

The post-war period in Japan was one of immense social change as Japanese society adjusted to the shock of defeat and to the occupation of Japan by American forces and their allies. Osamu Dazai’s The Setting Sun takes this milieu as its background to tell the story of the decline of a minor aristocratic family.

The story is told through the eyes of Kazuko, the unmarried daughter of a widowed aristocrat. Her search for self meaning in a society devoid of use for her forms the crux of Dazai’s novel. It is a sad story, and structurally is a novel very much within the confines of the Japanese take on the novel in a way reminiscent of authors such as Nobel Prize winner Yasunari Kawabata – the social interactions are peripheral and understated, nuances must be drawn, and for readers more used to Western novelistic forms this comes across as being rather wishy-washy.

Kazuko’s mother falls ill, and due to their financial circumstances they are forced to take a cottage in the countryside. Her brother, who became addicted to opium during the war is missing. When he returns, Kazuko attempts to form a liaison with the novelist Uehara. This romantic displacement only furthers to deepen her alienation from society.

Genres: Fiction, Classics, Japanese Literature, Japan, Historical Fiction, Novels, Literature

175 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1947

About the author

Osamu DAZAI (native name: 太宰治, real name Shūji Tsushima) was a Japanese author who is considered one of the foremost fiction writers of 20th-century Japan. A number of his most popular works, such as Shayō (The Setting Sun) and Ningen Shikkaku (No Longer Human), are considered modern-day classics in Japan.
With a semi-autobiographical style and transparency into his personal life, Dazai’s stories have intrigued the minds of many readers. His books also bring about awareness to a number of important topics such as human nature, mental illness, social relationships, and postwar Japan.

Reviews

[Gaurav Sagar · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Setting Sun
Osamu Dazai

What is it with Japanese literature, I always feel a sense of awe whenever I plunge myself into artistic universe of the country of rising sun and Osamu Dazai does no harm to the reputation of it. I find that plot development and action have often been of secondary interest to emotional issues and most of the modern Japanese authors stressed upon consciousness of narrators and perhaps that why it has resonated so well with me. Though I’ve started to read Japanese literature last year only (so couldn’t really claim myself to be master of it :P) however I find most of the modern Japanese authors- whether it is Kwabata, Abe, Mishima or Dazai for that matter- have been able to portray problems or rather ironies of human existence and so effortlessly put forth the condition of human consciousness on the canvas of art that it’s only second (to me) to modern Russian literature. You may well find traits of nihilism, existentialism well evident in the works of probably all great modern Japanese authors. I guess perhaps world war, fate of Japan in it played major role in the way modern Japanese literature has come out; for people there might have felt disaffection, utter loss of purpose and the difficulty in coping up with defeat in the World War II might have also played major role in it. Besides, Japanese society has been strongly influenced by western culture, wherein it left its aristocratic roots to rapidly developed into industrialized society; the sense of alienation in urban life, crisis of purpose must have also played a great role the way the modern literature of the country has panned out.

Coming back to The Setting Sun after this (unintentional) carefree preamble, well it is set in modern Japan after World War II, the book revolves around a family which struggles to cope up with crisis of daily life after the War as most of the Japanese families struggled during this stretch when the society was in transition from traditional to a modern one- city dweller, industrialized one. The sudden change in the social architecture of the country after World War II brought fundamental changes in the society as a whole while most people found difficult to get along with as these rapid changes did not provide them enough time to get adapt to it. But perhaps, those difficulties brought up great Japanese works in literature as we know that irony generally brings out beauty. The face of Japan changed at a very fast pace as per rules of economics and convenience- as it mother of all changes. However, below this rapid change, the moral and spiritual life of the country also went similar but gradual changes- as habits always take time to change. In the modern Japan, the family structure gradually lost its value, the long cherished traditions of the country also went under slow death. The Setting Sun is one of such stories about a family consists of three main characters, namely Kazuko- the protagonist, her mother and her brother, Naoji through whom the author brings up a number of social and philosophical problems of that time period. It’s through the sad eyes of Kazuko that Dazai takes the reader through a tragic yet beautiful (of course, filled with a tinge of heart-wrenching pain) sojourn of post–war tragedy wherein you could witness (with distressing pity) the pillars of aristocratic tradition being rooted up by turbulence brought up by need of the hour; Dazai narrates the suffering of Kazuko and her family through those times, the suffering which underlines destitute existence of the Japanese society during post war era.

The book talks about eminent struggle of the protagonist- Kazuko- to come in terms with the rapid changing world wherein she’s not sure about her inclination whether it's about the aristocratic heritage or the new uprising world which is derived by convenience and desires. Eventually, she battles herself to survive along a fine thread lingering between the customary world and a developing modern sphere of humanity. The nihilistic traits of grief, sadness, bleakness, suicide, absurdism and despair of life are as evident as water in a vessel of glass and I found that these traits in other major works of Dazai too - No Longer Human and Schoolgirl. In fact, it could said be authority that post-war philosophy and literature is highly inspired form these abovementioned traits- whether it may be existentialism of Sartre, absurdism of Camus or any other modern and post-modern movement of literature. The harrowing experiences of World Wars certainly contribute to sudden rise in popularity and development of these schools of thoughts in post- war times. All these art/ philosophical movements works on similar themes that existence somewhat lingers upon absurd situation of life and one has to accept this state of absurdness, and in fact that very realization is the onset of true of existence wherein one has to take responsibility of one's life.

There are some very vivid pieces throughout the book which are so tragic that they render heart-wrenching affliction that you actually feel the agony of characters and in fact feel like crying with them; I’ve not come across such deplorable reading experiences for quite some time. There is one scene where Kazuko has been given job to look after lumber pile, the officer, who allocates her the job, provides her a book which could read if she may feel bored. After end of day, she runs up to him and hands over the book; she wants to extend her gratitude to him but somehow words fail to come out from her mouth. In this distressing silence she looks at his face, and when their eyes met, tears flown down in the eyes of both. It may across as a quite simple episode to a naïve reader but an active reader would only able to understand that so powerful it is that you actually feels a deep connect with the protagonist and feels like crying with her, such is the influence of mesmerizing prose of Dazai that it brings out emotions to life. The books present contrasting choices made by the characters, the choices which represent altogether different philosophical treatments; we have Naoji who could not able to sustain ravages of life in post-war era on one hand and finds comfort in the clutches of death while Kazuko keeps on lingering with courage and bravely fights out traditional society on the desire to live rather than succumbing to the teasing embrace of death; to live at any cost, perhaps that’s the most humane instinct. There are several incidents like episode the burning of eggs of snakes and fire outbreak where you can associate with self- pity and guilt felt by the protagonist; guilt and sense of pity which may strip oneself from all veils one may have developed to comfort oneself against the chilly reality of life and existence of oneself may stand naked without false sense of comfort, and which may be quite nippy realization.

When mother discovered that I had burned the snake eggs, she certainly must have felt that there was something ill-omened in the act. This realization brought home to me the feeling that I had done a terrible thing in burning the eggs.

I was aghast at the sudden realization of what had caused the fire. It was only then that it occurred to me that the disaster had taken place because the previous night, after I removed the unburned sticks of firewood from the furnace, I had left them next to the woodpile, thinking that they were already out. This discovery made me want to burst into tears.


Though it is quite obvious that there is a connection between author’s life and the book- in fact in any of his works for that matter, however it would be immature of a reader to confine the book as an autobiographical account of Dazai. The Setting Sun may quite confidently said to be one of his more objective works, and yet you may come across the derivatives from Dazai’s own personality- much in Naoji, in the novelist Uehera, his mentor, and even in Kazuko, the narrator of the story. One of the distinguishing factors of the books, which I feel separates it from other works of Dazai (including No Longer Human too which otherwise is a great achievement in modern Japanese literature), is strong character of Kazuko who keeps on struggling to live rather than accept death as her fate. Another facet of the prose of Dazai is that, which is not known to many, he puts last remark in the conversation first and then goes back to the steps leading to it; it may come across as a technique similar to stream of consciousness of modernism but I would say it’s more close to flashback technique, as also mentioned by translator of the book. Another jewel in the feather of Dazai is that he was able to use small incidents such as burning of snake eggs to convey large meanings which again come across as similar to minimalist approach of post-modernism but it has got it roots in Japanese poetry wherein each word is supposed to be vital part of whole. The book, by the depth of its understanding of the Japanese of today, evokes and reveals aspects of the Japan as nation in whole. It would be ingenuous of a reader to consider The Setting Sun as a sociological document rather it is a powerful and beautiful novel by one of the greatest Japanese authors of modern times.

To me, it occurs, as one of those books which leave you emotionally exhausted after you finish them, all your feelings get drained off our conscience, and you actually feel nothing and become oblivious to the emotions which otherwise might have been surged due to surroundings. In fact, I’ve been so attached with book that even after 3-4 days of finishing it I’m quite struggling to start a new one. Perhaps this verbose outburst may help me in coming to terms with my reading choices :) Overall, it was a marvelous experience, quite vivid and full of human sensibilities which has got power to bring out your most deep rooted emotions, as you expect Dazai (or Japanese authors as a whole) to be, and something peculiar which I’ve experienced a few times.

4.5/5

[emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

"written by osamu dazai" would get me to read anything

(reading till i find a five star on substack)

[persephone ☾ · Rating 5 out of 5]

numbing pain, glass shattered and unshed tears, that's how this book feels to me and how it will always be.
Osamu Dazai will always know the way to my heart (and incidentally the way to break it too)

[Helga · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful; powerful; poignant

God killed me, and only after He had made me into someone entirely different from the person I had been, did he call me back to life.

The story centers on a Japanese aristocratic family trapped in a transitional period of morality...

It’s as though an unseasonable frost had fallen all over the whole world.

…a family who in the aftermath of the Second World War, have lost their status, their home and possessions.

For the first time in my life I realized what a horrible, miserable, salvationless hell it is to be without money. My heart filled with emotion, but I was in such anguish that the tears would not come. I wondered if the feeling I experienced then was what people mean by the well-worn phrase “dignity of human life.” I lay there, staring at the ceiling, feeling incapable of the slightest motion, my body stiff as a stone.

The main focus of the book is on the decline of aristocracy after the Second World War…

-“I want to bring her back to health again. I want somehow to save her.”
-“Don’t you see there’s nothing we can do? We can’t do a thing.”

…and on the meaning of life, loss of hope, misplaced ideas and ideals, suicide and death.

A sensation of helplessness, as if it were utterly impossible to go on living. Painful waves beat relentlessly on my heart, as after a thunderstorm the white clouds frantically scud across the sky. A terrible emotion—shall I call it an apprehension—wrings my heart only to release it, makes my pulse falter, and chokes my breath. At times everything grows misty and dark before my eyes, and I feel that the strength of my whole body is oozing away through my finger tips.

The story’s main narrator is the family’s twenty-nine-year-old daughter, Kazuko, who has to take care of her sick mother and deal with her addicted brother who has come back from the war in the South Pacific, defeated, dejected, disillusioned and depressed.

The more I reflected the more certain it seemed that the future had in store for us only horrible, evil things. The thought filled me with such nameless fears that I felt almost incapable of going on living.

This semi-autobiographical story consists of fragments of reminiscences, diary entries and letters.
After a few unsuccessful suicide attempts, Osamu Dazai eventually ended his life at the age of 38.

To wait. In our lives we know joy, anger, sorrow, and a hundred other emotions, but these emotions all together occupy a bare one per cent of our time. The remaining ninety-nine per cent is just living in waiting. I wait in momentary expectation, feeling as though my breasts are being crushed, for the sound in the corridor of the footsteps of happiness. Empty. Oh, life is too painful, the reality that confirms the universal belief that it is best not to be born.

[Steven Godin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I decided to try a Japanese writer I hadn't read before, rather than go back to the likes of Mishima, Murakami or Kawabata. My honest opinion - I think it's a masterpiece. A simple and beautifully crafted prose touched with an echoing sadness, whilst its nihilist tones came as no surprise reading up on the life Dazai - he very much draws heavily on his own experiences in the novel. The Setting Sun deals with the decline of Japan’s aristocracy in the wake of World War II, and portrays characters adrift in a world that no longer feels familiar. The narrator, Kazuko, who is in her late twenties comes from a once-rich family whose fortunes have dried out. Having to part with their luxurious Tokyo home, she and her ailing mother move to a villa in a mountainous region to the west. But the harmony of their now fragile existence is unsettled by the return of Kazuko’s brother Naoji, a former opium addict, who again takes up the drug, after returning from action during the war. With a mother who's health is deteriorating, and Kazuko who goes about the novel either in tears or on the verge of them, the selfish and destructive Naoji squanders what money the family have left on binge drinking trips to Tokyo. Kazuko in the end tries to stabilize her life by foisting her affections on one of his so-called friends, an alcoholic novelist, eventually leading to a poignant finale that closed the novel in a life affirming manner. Dazai writes with a subtle nature, and draws on the emotional complexities and actions of Kazuko making the simple narrative a deeper experience. There is something about Dazai that I like more than any other Japanese novelist I've read, but I can't quite pinpoint what it actually is. Just more of a feeling inside, I guess. One I'll definitely read again, and obviously I'll want to read his other work now too.

[Praj · Rating 4 out of 5]

The plum trees baffled by the reflection of the blossoming tangerines swayed over the little pond pondering the resemblance of the fruit to the radiance of the rising sun. Overlooking the groves of pines, the path from bourgeois to proletariat was burdened with the desolation of social hierarchy. The love for the rising sun made the nimble ocean embrace the tears that flowed through vestiges of human dignity. The memories of the “last lady of Japan” engulfed in the intense flames of the rainbow burgeoning in the perturbing breast; the yearning of love residing in the ashes. The crackling of the viper’s eggs precipitating the tortuous truth within the delicate moonflowers caught between personal and communal war. The silk kimonos drenched in human depravity bared the testament of a revolution simmering within the purplish-blue hues of the setting sun. Man was born for love and revolution ; the phrase that had snatched my nocturnal tranquillity bestowing the mind with claustrophobic sentiments of Kazuko’s moral insurgency. The hostilities of a transitional era, the vulnerabilities of human survival and the solemnity of self- esteem tapping the helplessness of civilization; like the emptiness of the sky just before the moon arises, the segregation emerging from the changing horizon is daunting and at times engulfed my own solitary apprehensions as I heard Dazai’s empathetic voice reciting the woes of a evolving Japan and its trapped people.


"If it is true that man, once born into the world, must somehow live out his life, perhaps the appearance that people make in order to go through with it, even if it is as ugly as their appearance, should not be despised. To be alive. To be alive."

Dazai dips into the post-war Japanese society dwelling in between the swelling didactic intensity to the likes of Chekov, Balzac and the moralistic spirituality of a ‘Tale of Genji’. Onset of modernity in the traditional Japanese society had brought along disintegration of class hierarchy with aristocracy vanishing into the humiliated corners of societal mores. The inability of the Japanese people to adapt to the new social order is portrayed through the protagonist's susceptibilities that adhere to the new environment of an egalitarian existence. Dazai through the sublime voice of Kazuko, claims the Japanese war was an act of depression with the Japanese people becoming the core victims of the psychological malady. Kazuko’s aristocratic heritage had trickled down into speckled manifestations of her mother’s societal and domestic etiquette. Naoji’s self-labeling of being a “high-class beggar” is an oxymoron that elaborated the impoverished state of the Japanese aristocratic rank in the aftermath of the WWII and the subsequent land reforms.

Analogous to his No Longer Human, Dazai trades on the similar grounds of desolation, humiliation, suicide , declining of traditional mores, rebellion to modernity, despair and individualistic war of morality and survival ; all of them being the ominous salient features of a post-war culture. ”Like a leaf that rots without falling” describes the agony of Kazuko and her family’s impecunious existence. It is not at all a surprise that Dazai once again brings up the objective outlook of being a communal outcast. Dazai, himself born into an aristocrat family always viewed himself to be a societal exile; searching for the sanguinity of death. The raison d'être of my fondness towards Dazai’s prose is that Dazai steadily becomes an animated participant in his scripted prose. Through the numerous anecdotes and characterizations, Dazai proficiently interlocks his personal chronicles with those of his sketched actors. Kazuko’s evident struggle between the worlds of “realism” and “romanticism”, defining the safeguard of her privileged ancestry and the festering rebellion to become a “self-styled lover”, becomes emblematic in the struggle to survive in a world where personal desires to live weighs more than customary obligations to the Japanese customs. Dazai romanticizes death through the usage of symbolic metaphors of ‘black snakes’ and ‘swollen hand’ and the refuge of a feeble human soul in the abstraction of addiction. The suicidal tendencies that find chief prominence in Dazai’s prose, somehow in a bizarre manner nurses my disquiet soul in finding harmony through these troubled fictional characters. The moment when one finally unshackles the floating suicidal shadows only to plant the optimism “to be alive”, everything around swiftly brightens up like a rainbow on a sundrenched day. Even the air smells different. I wonder if Kazuko felt related emotions when she decided to stay alive and become a revolutionary in a varying land where the beauty and honor of humanity was defiled by societal doctrines that was itself cramped between the archaic conventions and modernity.

"In our lives we know joy, anger, sorrow, and a hundred other emotions, but these emotions all together occupy a bare one per cent of our time. The remaining ninety-nine per cent is just living in waiting."

When one waits on the periphery of survival, at times the futile lingering brings with it vast emptiness ravaging the validity of birth. The agony prevailing over whether was it best not to be born, either succumbs in the deathly silence of Naoji’s Testaments or Kazuko’s righteous rebellion for love. The wretchedness of morality and despair gets washed in the alcoholic eddy as piteous souls like Uehara and Naoji stagger into an inexorable hell. However, when rainbows of salvation are formed within the courageous breast, love and revolution becomes the most gratifying thing to human beings. In the espousing “moral revolution”, Kazuko became the pictogram of a brave soul who rebelled the traditional mores and rebelled for the desire of love and life; redefining the norms of the rising sun that no longer abided the principles of the judicious old, but pursued the people of the setting sun hovered by the shadows of black vipers and faint fragrances of crushed moonflowers, into strengthening the spirituality of life rather than making death the ultimate pleasant sanctuary.

[eli · Rating 2 out of 5]

i’m quite afraid i am too stupid for this book.

[Jr Bacdayan · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Any man who criticizes my suicide and passes judgment on me with an expression of superiority, declaring (without offering the least help) that I should have gone on living my full complement of days, is assuredly a prodigy among men quite capable of tranquilly urging the Emperor to open a fruit shop."

[Dream.M · Rating 3 out of 5]

این رمان رو دوست داشتم اما انگار برای اینکه عاشقش بشم چیزی کم داشت. احتمالا چون اول زوال بشر رو خوندم و اوج سیاهی رو تجربه کردم؛ این کتاب نتونست همون حس رو بهم بده

[ArturoBelano · Rating 5 out of 5]

Japon edebiyatı yolculuğum son hızla olmasa da ağır aksak ilerlemeye devam ediyor ve her okuduğum kitap, her tanıştığım yazarla sevgim ve ilgim bir kat daha artıyor. Yolculuğumun bu bölümünde Osama Dazai ve Batan Güneş’e dair bol spoilerli bir yorumla karşınızdayım ancak esere geçmeden önce, eseri okurken düşündüğüm bu topraklara dair bir hissi kısaca paylaşmak istiyorum.

Şalvarı şaltak Osmanlı
Eğeri kaltak Osmanlı
Ekende yok biçende yok
Yiyende ortak Osmanlı.

Osmanlı’ya dair yakılan bu dörtlüğü duymuşsunuzdur, Anadolu’da kim bilir bu güne ulaşmamış ne sövgüler vardır Osmanlı’ya. Ama şöyle bir durum da var; 600 yıldan fazla bu topraklara hükmetmiş bir yapının çöküşünden sonra bu çöküşün yarattığı boşluğa dair tek bir edebi sözün, eserin ortaya çıkmamış olmaması çok garip ve aslında öğretici de. Cumhuriyetin kuruluş sancılarına dair romanları bilmekle birlikte o “ eski güzel günlere dair” hiçbir şey okumamış olmamız halife- hanedanın aslında bu topraklarla bir ilgisi olmadığının da bir kanıtı olsa gerek. Dekadans, toplumsal çözülme ya da gelişen yeni sınıflar karşısında çözülen eski aristokrasi hikayeleri daima ilgimi çeker lakin bir kişinin bile bunu edebi olarak kaleme dökememiş olması edebi bir eksik olmaktan öte sarayın kofluğuna delalet ediyor sanırım. Neyse geçelim bu faslı.

Japon edebiyatının en kırılgan, ömrünü intihar çabalarına adamış ve en nihayetinde bu mutlu sona 39 yaşında ulaşmış Osuma Dazai’nin Batan Güneş’i kitabın sonundaki intihar mektubu ile kendi sonunu önceden belirlemesi ile son sözleri gibi yorumlansa da (ki doğrudur) Batan Güneş bunların ve bu anlamın çok ötesinde bir kitap. Büyük bir hayranlık ile bitirdim kitabı ve şu an tek istediğim keşke gündelik rutinler zorlamasa da bütün yazdıklarını bir hafta içinde bitirsem hissi.

Gelelim kitabımıza; İngiltere’nin sömürgelerinden kaynaklı üzerinde güneş batmayan ülke ünvanı varsa Japonya’nında imparatorun şahsıyla simgelenen güneşin sahibi olma hak ve hürriyeti var. Bu anlamda Batan Güneş Dazai’nin kaderiyle beraber, 2. Dünya savaşı sonrası yankeelere kayıtsız şartsız teslim olan ( artık güneşin sahibi değiliz) ve “manavlık yapan “ majestelerin dönemine de hem de tüm ömrünü o ünvanla savaşarak geçirmiş bir yazarın ağıtının hikayesidir.

Hikayemiz savaş sonrası eski soylu imtiyazlarını yitirmiş bir evde bir kadının ağzından aktarılır. Baba ölmüş, erkek kardeş Naoji savaşdan dönmemiş, kendisi boşanıp eve dönmüş ve anne ile birlikte yaşamaktadır. Anne, ekonomik çöküşe ve yıkıntıya rağmen o eski soylu geleneğin son temsilcilerindendir. Kitap zaten annenin çorba içişinin asaleti ve taklit edilemezliği ile başlar, “ biz en fazla görgü kurallarına uyarız, anne ise en baştan bu kuralların dışındadır “ Bu bölümde anne’nin hasta olduğunu, ekonomik zorluklarla taşınma zorunda oluşlarını ve yılanları görürürüz. Baba öldüğünde her yanı yılanlar sarar, kızımız bahçede gördüğü yılan yumurtalarını yakar ve yılan aynı zamanda güneşin simgesidir, babanın ve yavruların ölümü batışın ön izleri gibidir. Batış aslında zaten başlamıştır ve düşme Çin evine ( rezaletin daniskası) taşınma ile simgelendiğinde annenin dediği gibi “ çoktan ölmüşlerdir”.

Baba’nın da öldüğü evi terk edip, köyde bir Çin evine taşındıklarında( düştüklerinde) anne’nin hastalığı ilerlemeye başlar. Bu esnada savaşta öldüğü düşünülen oğul eve geri döner ancak dönen oğul esrarkeş ve hayatla bağı olmayan bir entelektüeldir. Kendisine bir hayrı olmadığı gibi eve de yük olmaktan öte bir eylemi yoktur. Bu bölümde anlatıcımız bir köylüye dönüşür, toprağı işlemeye başlar ve soylu gelenek realiteye boyun eğer. Bu bölümde biz Naoji’nin Akşam Yüzleri Notları ile karşılaşırız.

“ Felsefe mi bir sürü yalan
İlkeler mi bir sürü yalan
Düzen mi bir sürü yalan”
“ her şey ters gidiyor. Bu aslında intihar etmekten başka işim kalmadığını göstermez mi ?”

Dazai’nin esas olarak araya parça attığı bölümlerden ilki burası, sesini son kez intihar mektubunda duyacağız.

“ Bu dünya için fazlasıyla iyi” anneyi asaletinden hiçbir şey yitirmeden ölüm döşeğinde buluruz. İmparatorluğun batan güneşinden sonra, sıra annenin batışına gelmiştir. Bu bölümde anne ile kızı arasında geçen diyalog, geçen giden günlere son bir bakış gibidir ve okurken beni de imparatorun kaderini düşündürerek gereksiz hüzünlere gark etmiştir.

“- Gazetede imparatorun resmini gördüm. Tekrar görmek isterdim. “ Gazete sayfasını annenin yüzüne doğru açtım.
- Yaşlanmış
- Hayır, bu kötü bir resim. Geçen gün çıkan resimlerinde genç ve mutlu görünüyordu. Bugünlerde çok mutlu olmalı.
- Neden?
- İmparator da serbest bırakıldı.
Anne hüzünle gülümsedi.
Ama ben de, ağlamak istediğim zaman gözyaşlarım akmıyor. “

Yenilgi ve yıkım sonrası yazan bu adamların, geleneğin için de ya da geleneğe karşı olsun, hiç ucuza kaçmadan, basitleştirmeden, propaganda yapmadan duygularını okura geçirmesini ve benim gibi “ yetersiz milliyetçi”, bir insanı bile duygusal fırtınalara sürüklemesi es geçilir bir beceri değil. Dazai kitap boyunca, varoluşsal ve politik konjonktürden doğan dertlerini drama kaçmadan ve belki derdin bütününü göremeyen okur için bile ince bir üslupla işliyor ta ki son sözlerine kadar.

Anne soylu bir şekilde ölmek üzere, Naoji “soysuz “bir şekilde sonuna yelken açarken hikayeyi dinlediğimiz kızımız “ biz artık bu biçimde yaşayamayız” diyerek kaleme sarılır ve 7 yıl önce bir kez gördüğü bir adama, sevgili ya da metresi olma isteğini ileten 3 tane mektup yazar. Anlatının elini güçlendiren bölümlerden biri de bu mektuplardır. Bu mektuplarda biz çöküşe teslim olmaktan öte etik bir karşı duruşun yolunu arayan bir karakter görürüz. Dekadans dönemlerinde, ondan ekonomik olarak nemalanmayacak ya da konjonktüre yamanmayacaksak ( türk edebiyatının 12 Eylül çöküşü sonrası ürünleri genel olarak pişmanlık, nostalji, kabuğuna kapanma figürleri ve ağlak bir iç hesaplaşma ile konjonktürün içinden konuşmuştur, tutkusuz ve çıkışsızdır) delirme, intihar, aşk ve devrimcilik eldeki az sayıdaki seçeneklerden biridir. Ömrünü annesi ve annesinin değerlerine bağlılık ile geçiren anlatıcı annenin yaklaşan sonu ile başka bir yaşama bağlanmanın derdindedir. Aşk mektupları cevapsız kalınca, Naoji’nin kitaplığından Rosa, Lenin, Kautsky okur, devrimci olacaktır. Anlatıcı nasıl yırtacağından öte neresinden hayata tutunacağının derdindedir. Devrimci olamasa da Annenin ölümü ile harekete geçer, cevapsız mektuplara inat aşkının peşine düşer, bulur ama tahayyül ile gerçeklik uyuşmaz ama yine de hayalindeki adamla bir kez sevişir ve sabahında Naoji ardında mektup bırakarak intihar eder.

Bu kitabımızda batan son güneştir, bu kitabı okumayacaksanız bile bu mektubu bulup okumanızı öneririm. Dazai’nin eli kulağında sonunun bu mektuba bir kat daha değer kattığı aşikar ancak o son olmasa dahi etkisinin güçlü olduğu da bir gerçek. Yaşamını baba kanının reddi, soylu ruhuna küfür ile geçirmiş, kendini “ halk dostu” olmaya adamış bu kalemin varoluşsal krizinin belgesini “ ben bir soyluyum” olarak noktalamasındaki trajediyi çemberin ne içi ne de dışında kalabilen muallaktaki Türkiye’li okur derinden hissedecektir diye düşünüyorum ve huzurlarınızdan mektuptan bir parça ile ayrılıyorum.

“ Beni malum havalara girip yargılayacak ve intihar edişimi eleştirecek olanları, ömrüme son vermeden onu sürdürmem gerektiğini söyleyip bana hayatta her türlü yardımı esirgemiş olanlar, Majestelerini manav dükkanı açmaya zorlayan o üstün insanlardan farksızdır. “

[Maziyar Yf · Rating 3 out of 5]

کتاب خورشید رو به غروب نوشته اوسامو دازای نویسنده سرشناس ژاپنی ایست . او در این کتاب خانواده ای اشرافی را روایت کرده که همزمان با شکست ژاپن در جنگ دوم و زوال و متلاشی شدن جامعه آن و همچنین به محاق رفتن سنت و اندیشه های زمان امپراتوری ، خود نیزرو به افول است ، همانگونه که عنوان کتاب هم نشان از پایین آمدن یا غروب خورشید و تاریکی پس از آن دارد .
شخصیت های کتاب او افراد خانواده ای اشرافی هستند که هر کدام را به گونه ای می توان نماد بخشی از جامعه ژاپن دانست . آنکه به اشراف نزدیکتر است ضعیف و بیمار و رو به مرگ و آنکه از جنگ برگشته و هم در جنگ به تریاک وابسته بوده و هم پس از جنگ به الکل و نباید سرانجامی جز تباهی و نیستی داشته باشد .
تنها کازوکو است که دنبال معنی زندگی رفتن او را باید همانند فراموش کردن آداب و سنن کهنه و تلاش او برای رابطه با مرد را باید مانند پذیرفتن ارزش ها و مفاهیم جدید دانست .
خورشید رو به غروب را هم باید روایتگر افول ، سقوط و محو طبقه اشراف جامعه ژاپن و هم به پوچی رسیدن دیگر قشرهای آن دانست . اما با وجود سیاهی و تباهی که کتاب و ژاپن شکست خورده را فرا گرفته درپایان دازای نوید تولد نسلی جدید با آینده ای بهتر می دهد ، نسلی که به گونه ای متفاوت از پدران و مادران خود زندگی خواهد کرد .

[Dalia Nourelden · Rating 4 out of 5]

" إن علمتم بموتي، من المؤكد أنكم ستبكون ، ولكنكم عندما تفكرون في معاناتي من هذه الحياة ، والفرحة من التحرر الكامل من هذه العيشة الكريهة ، فأعتقد أن حزنكم ذلك سيضحمل تدريجياً."

ما بين الأم المريضة وابنتها التي تعتني بها بعد طلاقها واضطرارهم للانتقال لمنزل آخر وحزن امها على تركها للمنزل الذي عاشت به مع زوجها لكنهم اضطروا للانتقال بسبب احوالهم المادية وحاجتهم للمال . ونتعرف على مشاعر هذه الفتاة ووحدتها وخوفها على أمها وشعورها بأن أمها تحب اخيها الغائب اكثر منها . اما الأخ فذهب للحرب لكنه عاد لإدمانه للأفيون ثم للخمر والذي نتعرف على افكاره ومشاعره في نهاية الرواية .

 رواية تحمل الكثير من البؤس والحزن .
الجزء الذي لم يعجبني كان جزء رسايل الفتاة ومشاعر حبها وطريقتها في الحديث كانت مستفزة لي .. اما رسالة أخيها فكانت سوداوية وحزينة وقريبة مني وكانت أفضل اجزاء الرواية .والتي اعتقد انها ربما تحمل جزء من أفكار الكاتب الشخصية .

ملحوظة : المكتوب على غلاف الرواية يحرق تفاصيل من الرواية.

١١ / ٨ / ٢٠٢٣

[Dmitri · Rating 4 out of 5]

“What seemed to me good and lofty, love of fatherland, of one's own people, became to me repulsive and pitiable. What seemed to me bad and shameful, rejection of fatherland for cosmopolitanism, now appeared to me on the contrary as good and noble.”
- Leo Tolstoy “What I Believe” 1884

“The older and wiser heads of the world have always described revolution and love to us as the two most foolish and loathsome of human activities. Before the war, even during the war, we were convinced of it. Since the defeat, however, we no longer trust the older and wiser heads and have come to feel that the opposite of whatever they say is the real truth about life. Revolution and love are in fact the best, most pleasurable things in the world, and we realize it is precisely because they are so good that the older and wiser heads have spitefully fobbed off on us their sour grapes of a lie. This is what I want to believe implicitly: Man was born for love and for revolution.”

“There was something wrong about these people. But it’s maybe just as true of my love, they could not go on living except in the way they do. If it is true that a man once born into the world must somehow live out his life, perhaps the appearance that people make in order to go through with it, even if it is as ugly as is their appearance, should not be despised. To be alive. An intolerably immense undertaking before which one can only grasp in apprehension.”

************

Osamu Dazai published this book in 1947 Japan and it was translated to English in 1956. By the early postwar years Dazai had gained fame as a writer, the novel propelling him to even greater popularity. From an aristocratic family with ten siblings his father died from tuberculosis in 1923 when he was fourteen. He was excused from wartime service after he contracted TB himself. This is a story of the end of the nobility in Japan after WWII. It uses elements drawn from his own life and a diary of the writer Shizuko Ota who bore him a child in 1947. Told in spare modernist prose it is a classic of mid-20th century Japanese novels and his best known work. He ended his life in a tragic 1948 suicide at the age of thirty eight.

‘The Setting Sun’ is told through the eyes of Kazuko, the daughter of a widowed mother whose brother Naoji has disappeared in the war. She is divorced after a stillborn birth. The money has run out and they are supported by her uncle. He is forced to sell their old house in Tokyo and move them to the country. Kazuko had destroyed snake eggs on the old property and has a sense of guilt and fear. Since then ill-fated events happened, from their forced relocation to her mother’s illness and a dangerous fire in the new house. She learns that Naoji hasn’t died in the war and is coming home, now an opiate addict, as Dazai was in real life. She pays the bills and enables his habit as he lies and breaks his promises to quit using drugs.

Kazuko falls in love with Naoji’s teacher, a married and drunken novelist. She tries to contact him in letters but is ignored. Her mother is now bedridden with TB and Kazuko is selling their possessions to support both themselves and her brother’s drug habit in Tokyo. As her condition worsens the mother wakes from a dream where she sees the snake on the front porch whose eggs had been destroyed, now much older and bigger. Kazuko leaves for Tokyo to seek her future, on a cold night during the defeat and occupation. Osamu Dazai writes with a melancholy and sense of loss that is almost too painful to bear. Only a small number of his novels, the most well known ones in Japan, have been translated from his extensive bibliography.

[Karolina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dawno nie byłam z niczego tak dumna, jak z tego, co udało nam się w Tajfunach wydobyć z tego tekstu. Znam ten tekst już chyba na pamięć - i po japońsku i po polsku. Tak bardzo warto.

Premiera w drugiej połowie stycznia.

[Eddie Watkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

An analysis of sickness and love in the grip of large scale sickness and destruction. An analysis without recourse to logical analysis - like poetry.

"A science which is postulated on the assumption that human beings are avaricious through all eternity is utterly devoid of point (whether in problems of distribution or any other aspect) to a person who is not avaricious."

This winningly naive thought by the main character, upon reading a book on economics in the wake of WWII, her first foray into such "adult" matters, is emblematic of the stance taken throughout this narrative. It says - Forget all the larger complicated political/economic/etc. analyses and concerns of collective life in times of massive upheaval and destruction and focus on one's own responses to events, however untutored and illogical. Defeatism? Possibly. But also heroic and perpetually necessary. Through his own egocentricism and resolute determination to remain authentic, Dazai wrote a book that gets to the heart of a universal individualism, while at the same time advocating for transient beauties and dissolution and suicide.

So instead of looking toward thinkers for a way out, she looks toward nature, in the classical Japanese way, to the hope that autumn chrysanthemums will restore her sick mother (a mother who is sick and unnamed throughout the book, and so a symbolic stand-in for Japan itself). But the flowers don't do it, for nothing but heroic love can restore whatever remains of meaning in a devastated world.

[Parastoo Khalili · Rating 5 out of 5]

شایو؛ پایین رفتن خورشید

شایو؛ داستانی درباره ی افرادی که نمی‌دونن چجوری زندگی‌شون رو ادامه بدن. داستان کازوکو، نائوجی، اقای اوهارا، مادر.
انسان‌های کوچکی که مغزبزرگی دارند و احساسات عمیق. داستان افراد جنگ‌زده، جنگ جهانی دوم که کشور و ملت رو به سمت پوچی و افسردگی شکست جنگی کشوند، داستان افراد شکست خورده و از عرش به فرش رسیده، داستان عذاب وجدان کشتن و تقاص پس دادن، داستان از دست دادن و تنها ماندن، داستان ارزوهای مهال، داستان شناخته نشدن و عذاب کشیدن..
داستان انسان بودن!

[Alialiarya · Rating 4 out of 5]

روایات خشک و ساده و بی‌هیجان شرقی معمولا جانم را به لب می‌رسانند آن‌قدر که شاعرانگی‌شان سنتی و انسان‌های‌شان بدون جوش و خروش شخصیت‌های غربی‌اند، گاها احساس می‌کنم دارم یک داستان را دوباره می‌خوانم، با همان شخصیت‌ها و بی‌چارگی‌ها اما امان از روایت شرقی‌ای که تمامی این کلیشه‌ها را به درستی کنار هم بنشاند. روایتی آشنا: دختری سی ساله و تنها، مادری بیمار، برادری سرباز و معتاد و پایانی آشناتر: مرگ و خودکشی و تنهایی و زوال. اما دازای(معمولا اگر چند نویسنده‌ی محبوب و عامه‌پسند یک نویسنده‌ی محبوب داشته باشند آن بسیار عامه‌ناپسند است!) بی‌رحمانه روایت می‌کند و امکان ندارد زوال دختر داستان و رابطه‌ی مادر-دختری داستان از یادتان برود. خوانش شایو مواجهه با ادبیاتی‌ست که تنها با چند شخصیت و با قدرت شاعرانگی جهانی را می‌سازد به وسعت تمامی جهان، خوانش کتاب‌هایی مثل شایو نه سن دارد نه ربطی به مکان زندگی و تجربیات شما، خوانش شایو خوانش یک کتاب بی‌زمان و بی‌مکان است

[Navid Taghavi · Rating 5 out of 5]

هر چیز راستینی گرایش به کژی دارد
شایو روایت یک خانواده سه نفره در روزهای پس از پایان جنگ جهانی دوم است. سختیِ زیستن در آن زمانه شامل حال مادر خانواده و دو فرزند جوانش هم می‌شود. پسر خانواده به جبهه‌های جنگ اعزام شده است و با وجود اتمام جنگ، خبری از او در دست نیست و دختر مطلقه خانواده – که راوی رمان است – هم با مادرش زندگی می‌کند. حوادثی زندگی این خانواده را تحت تاثیر قرار می‌دهد و علاوه بر این، هر یک از این سه نفر با مشکلات شخصی روبرو هستند.
در پسِ تصویرِ زندگی غم‌انگیز این خانواده، خانواده بزرگی به نام ملت ژاپن را می‌توان دید. ملتی که از تسلیم تحقیرآمیز در پایان جنگ جهانی، سرخورده شده‌اند و با تماشای آن شکوه از دست رفته و رو به زوال رنج می‌برند. همچنان که این سه نفر از این رنج و عذاب دور نیستند. معنایِ نام رمان هم از این زوال حکایت می‌کند. (شایو به معنای غروب خورشید است.) شایو یکسال پیش از خودکشی (این بار موفقیت‌آمیز) این نویسنده تلخ‌اندیش ژاپنی منتشر شد و مورد توجه قرار گرفت.
انتشارات کتاب فانوس، ناشر رمان شایو بوده است که پیش از این هم آثاری از دیگر نویسنده مشهور ژاپنی - کوبو آبه - چاپ کرده است. شایو اولین ترجمه مرتضی صانع است که باید به او بابت حسن انتخاب و ترجمه عالی‌اش خسته نباشید گفت که برای اولین ترجمه‌اش سراغ نویسنده‌ای رفته که پیش از این رمانی از او به فارسی منتشر نشده بود و با وجود شناخته شدن در جهان، برای خوانندگان فارسی زبان گمنام بود و علاوه بر این ریسک شجاعانه، به خوبی از پس ترجمه و فضاسازی سرد و غم‌زده اوسامو دازای برآمده است. برای نمونه، پاراگراف ابتدایی بخش سه : گل‌های شب‌بو را می‌آورم تا توامان با قلم مولف و مترجم آشنا شوید.

درماندگی. دیگر ادامه‌ی زندگی ممکن نیست. موج‌های درد همچون ابرهای سپیدی که پس از توفان و تندر دیوانه‌وار در آسمان پخش و پلا می‌شوند بی‌رحمانه خودشان را به دلم می‌کوبیدند. شور سهمگینی، که بایستی نام دلهره باشد، دلم را آنچنان می‌چلاند که اشکم دربیاید. نبضم را به پِت پِت می‌اندازد و راه نفسم را می‌بندد. گاه و بی گاه همه چیز جلوی چشمانم تیره و تار می‌شود. حس می‌کنم جانم از سر انگشتانم به بیرون تراوش می‌کند.

[Shaghayegh · Rating 2 out of 5]

خورشید در حال طلوع! (خطر لو رفتن اثر)
روزی روزگاری دوستی ازم پرسید کادوی تولد چی می‌خوای و من از خجالت آب شدم. از اون اصرار و از من هم تعارف‌های بیخود و الکی که این چه حرفیه و خودت کادویی و کلی شر و ور. در نهایت سایت رو چک کردم و زوال بشری انتخاب شد. منتهی بعد چند روز اعلام کردن که ناموجود بوده و زحمت آپدیت کردن سایت رو هم به خودشون ندادن. اینطور شد که آشنایی با دازای به شکست انجامید تا اینکه چند وقت پیش، خانم کتابفروش برای دوستم از خودکشی‌های متعدد بزرگوار داشت می‌گفت و منم تا چشمم به اسمش خورد برش داشتم و در یه حرکت پیش‌بینی‌ناپذیر، همخوانی تشکیل دادم و این اثر رو برای شروع انتخاب کردم!
نکته حائز اهمیتی که همیشه پشت گوش میندازم این هست که نباید به سیاه‌ترین ابعاد زندگی نویسنده و آثارش توجهی نشون بدم؛ چون به عنوان یه دارک‌پسند تو این مقوله خیلی سختگیرم و تا داغونم نکنه بهش ایمان نمیارم. اما این تنها دلیل تو خالی بودن ستاره‌های این کتاب نیست.
خورشید رو به غروب، تشابهات پررنگی با زندگی خالق اثر داره: مریضی مادر، روابط متعدد و خارج از ازدواج فرزند، اشراف‌زادگی، عشق به ادبیات و نویسندگی، جداافتادگی و عدم پذیرش، افسردگی و تمایلات به خودکشی و در نهایت به درک واصل شدن.
بنابراین نوشتن از مسائلی که خودت هم تجربه‌اش کردی و می‌کنی باید به نوشتارت عمق بیشتری بده؛ چون صرفا بر اساس شنیده‌ها، دیده‌ها و تجارب زیستی بقیه به قلم در نیومده و خودت هم وسط پیاز بودی.
دازای، کاری که در این کتاب می‌کنه به این صورت هست که نیمه‌ی اول رو با المان‌های قابل توجهی پیش می‌بره. استفاده از نمادهایی که به فرهنگش هم مربوط هست و سیر داستانی رو می‌تونه از نظر زیبایی‌شناسانه بالا بکشونه. به طور مثال: مار، آتش، گل نیلوفر و رنگین‌کمان فقط چهار کلمه ساده نیستن و ریشه در ادبیات، اساطیر و ادیان هم دارن. در ابتدا و اواسط خوانش، این استفاده و کاربرد نویسنده باعث شد به این فکر بیفتم که احتمالا در انتها یه حرکت قشنگی جهت ادغام کردنشون بزنه. اما متأسفانه ورق برگشت و اتفاق خاصی نیفتاد.
مورد بعدی، استفاده به اندازه و به جای نویسنده از ارجاعات بود. چیزی که در کنار نماد‌ها، قابلیت این رو داشت که اثر رو بحث‌برانگیزتر کنه. متأسفانه به علت سانسور بیخود نسخه نیماژ، بخش کثیری از ارجاعات حذف شدن که به عقیده من ریشه در مقدس جلوه دادن صاحب نقل قول داشت. به طور مثال:

Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.
For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.
And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household.
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.

یا حتی ترکش از مسیح به نقل قول از نیچه هم اصابت کرده:

“I don’t understand that happiness you speak of. It may seem very impertinent, but I can only answer, ‘No, thank you.’ I am what Nietzche described as ‘a woman who wants to give birth to a child.’ I want a child. Happiness does not interest me. I do want money too, but just enough to be able to bring up my child.”

جدای از این موارد که برای من منطقی نبودن و در نسخه کتاب فانوس به گفته‌ی همخوان‌ها چاپ شدن، تغییر ویسکی به نوشیدنی و حذف صحنه‌های ماچ هم صورت گرفت.
اما برم سر اصل مطلب!
خورشید رو به غروب عنوانی هست که خواننده رو تا حدودی گول می‌زنه. چون با یه نگاه ساده به اسامی سرفصل‌ها و خوندن چند خط از کتاب هم میشه پی برد که چیز خوبی در انتظار نیست. منتهی کار مثلا زیرکانه‌ای که دازای انجام میده این هست که همه چیز رو طوری جلوه میده که انگار میخواد آماده‌ات کنه ولی کاری که در نهایت صورت می‌گیره برخلاف پی‌ریزی هست!
اون از قصد خوداسپویلی می‌کنه و میگه اگه نائوجی بیاد جهنم شروع میشه. میگه که کازوکو تمایل به خودکشی داره و میل به زندگی در وجودش به کل نابود شده. ولی حرکتی که میزنه بدین صورت هست که خود کازوکو هم بهشت برین خانواده نیست و اونی که اقدام به خودکشی می‌کنه نائوجی از آب درمیاد. احتمالا مواردی از این دست باید موجبات شگفتی خواننده رو رقم بزنه که حدسیاتش به کل غلط بوده، منتهی از نظر من دازای با این کار گل به خودی می‌زنه.
چیز قابل توجهی که در نویسندگی و مخصوصا نوشته‌های پخته وجود داره این هست که بتونی برای به اوج رسوندن اثرت، خواننده رو غافلگیر کنی. این حرکت با در نظر گرفتن واکنش‌ها و حدسیات از پیش تعیین شده میتونه صورت بگیره. وقتی چنین چیزی لحاظ میشه، اگه نویسنده باهوش باشه و بتونه از پس داستانش هم بربیاد، عملی که انجام میده در جهت عکس هست یا با زاویه‌ای که خواننده بهش فکر نکرده بوده. (واقفم که استثناهایی هم وجود داره)
منتهی دازای به روش نه چندان جالبی برخلاف جماعت روایت می‌کنه. طلوع خورشید رو به غروب با پس‌انداختن یه طفل معصوم از یه رابطه سمی :| عجب ایده نابی! کازوکو، الیزابتی نیست که خواستگارهاش رو رد کنه تا به دارسی برسه. اون یه احمق به تمام معنا هست و در نهایت به اوئه‌هارا میرسه که نه ازش خوشش میاد و نه ازش متنفره. در طول داستان هم کازوکو مثل یه نوجوان نابالغ، تکلیفش با خودش مشخص نیست و تصمیمات بچگانه‌ای می‌گیره.
ردپای جنگ و از عرش به فرش رسیدن خانواده اشراف‌زاده کازوکو اونقدر به چشم نمیاد که فکر و خیالات اعصاب‌خردکن بزرگوار به کرات تکرار میشه.
تبعیض جنسیتی، خرافاتی که ریشه در فرهنگ ژاپن داره، خط قرمزهایی که در خانواده‌ ایرانی هم به چشم میاد و خیلی از موارد دیگه موجبات همذات‌پنداری و یا درک داستان رو فراهم می‌کنه.
با تمامی این تفاسیر، اثر در نیومده و ترجیحا سراغ شاهکار (امیدوارم که همینطور باشه) بزرگوار در آینده‌ای نه چندان دور میرم.

درباره همخوانی هم مثل خیلی از برگزارکننده‌ها حرف نمی‌زنم. جمع کوچیکی بودیم که نظرات ضد و نقیضی داشتیم و کتاب رو با تمام پستی و بلندی‌هاش کنار هم تموم کردیم. کسی این حرکت رو خاله بازی و کس دیگه برخلافش تلقی می‌کرد. اما اگر به من باشه، این شروع شکل‌گیری یه منطقه امن جدید برای ارتباطات گسترده‌تر با جماعتی بود که عاشقشونم و بهم کمک می‌کنن که خودم رو کمی در جهت بهتر شدن تغییر بدم. واقفم که گفته‌های خیلی از کتابخوان‌ها، شاید ارزش ادبی نداشته باشن اما این همراهی و همخوانی و دیدن جهان‌بینی‌های مختلف به یه موضوع باعث میشه که کمی خودمون رو ارتقا بدیم و من به همین کارم دلخوشم. امیدوارم که بتونم سهم کوچیکی برای ترغیب این جماعت دوست‌داشتنی داشته باشم.

پ.ن: بعد از این همخوانی، وسوسه‌ی عجیبی برای انتخاب یه کتاب زرد دارم که برای سرگرمی هم که شده کنار هم جمع شیم و چرت و پرت بگیم =)

[M. Malmierca · Rating 4 out of 5]

La decadencia de una tradicional familia burguesa nipona.

El ocaso/El declive (1947) de Osamu Dazai (1909-1948) nos muestra un tema recurrente en la literatura japonesa del siglo XX: la difícil transición de la tradición a la modernidad en ese país.

En este caso se trata de la decadencia (el declive) de una familia de aristócratas después de la Segunda Guerra Mundial, sustentada por tres personajes (madre, hija e hijo) magníficamente recreados, que, cada uno a su manera, son incapaces de asimilar los cambios que se están produciendo en el Japón de la postguerra. Personajes insatisfechos, desorientados que intentan aferrarse con desesperación cada uno a una idea (tradición, amor, drogas) para comprender qué está sucediendo e intentar salir vencedores de esta lucha interna. Pero, en esta obra al menos, Dazai decide que no lo consigan (quizás el autor pensaba en sí mismo).

La trama es simple, pero lo importante es que refleja magníficamente esa dicotomía de tradición y modernidad al explicarnos los tradicionales pensamientos y acciones de la madre, las nuevas ideas revolucionarias y amorosas de la hija y el imperioso deseo del hijo por pertenecer a la clase popular que le arrastra a un torbellino de experiencias poco saludables.

La propia estructura formal de la novela denota esa modernidad al dotar de género femenino al personaje principal de la novela, la hija, que es la narradora en primera persona. Pero también presenta muchas características propias de la literatura nipona, ritmo cadencioso, tono lineal, sin estridencias, un lenguaje sencillo y, sobre todo, esa minuciosidad en las descripciones de las cosas sencillas de la vida rutinaria (plantas, comidas, vestimentas, costumbres) que hacen de contrapunto a las ideas y acciones de los personajes. Me parece muy logrado que también en lo formal se pueda observar ese contraste.

Estamos ante una novela dura y triste, pero que puede ayudar a conocer la idiosincrasia de esa cultura japonesa a veces tan difícil de comprender por los occidentales.

[Kansas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Osamu Dazai es un escritor al que hacía tiempo que quería leer, es de esos autores cuya vida privada casi que es más llamativa que sus obras y quizás por eso siempre lo había ido relegando. Dazai acabo suicidándose (lo había intentado cuatro veces antes) a los 39 años lanzándose por un puente junto a su amante después de toda una vida de alcohol, drogas y pobreza y el hecho de hacerlo en 1948 cuando Japón estaba en plena destrucción tras la guerra, creo que retrata a la perfección su perfil y después de leer una novela como "El Declive", que debía estar compuesta por retazos autobiográficos, entiendes mucho mejor los elementos autodestructivos de un hombre como Osamu Dazai.

“Bebo para morir, pues vivir me resulta demasiado triste. La soledad, la melancolía, las estrecheces… la tristeza me abruma. Cuando oyes lúgubres sollozos procedentes de las cuatro paredes es que para tí no existe la felicidad. ¿Y cómo quieres que me sienta cuando me he dado cuenta de que no conoceré la felicidad ni la gloria mientras viva?“.

El Declive transcurre en una Japón de posguerra, un país en ruinas no solo físicamente sino en todos los aspectos más íntimamente ligados con el individuo y sus valores. El sistema tal como se había conocido se tambaleaba y la aristocracia tal como se la conocía ya andaba dando sus últimos coletazos. La protagonista de la novela es Kazuo, la hija de veintinueve años y divorciada de una familia aristocrática que lo ha perdido todo y se enfrenta a la pobreza más absoluta. Kazuo y su madre se ven forzadas a vender la casa familiar y a trasladarse al campo a una casa más humilde en espera de que su hermano vuelva de la guerra.

“Cuando subimos al tren, creí que me iba a morir. Al llegar aquí me animé un poco, pero cuando anocheció noté que el pecho me ardía de añoranza y me sentí desfallecer. Es como si Dios me hubiera matado y no me hubiera devuelto la vida hasta después de haberme convertido en una persona diferente”.

Contada en primera persona por Kazuo, a través de sus reflexiones y de sus "flashbacks", somos testigos de las nuevas ideas que se van imponiendo en el clima social, unas ideas que ponen en cuestión toda una forma de vida, personas que antes ni se lo planteaban ahora tienen que luchar por sobrevivir, aunque trabajar es una especie de tabú que incluso en sus horas más bajas ni se planteaban. La tranquila vida que Kazuo y su madre llevan en el campo, se ve desestabilizada cuando su hermano Naoji vuelve de la guerra; su hermano que es una especie de alter ego del propio Osamu Dazai, adicto al opio y al alcohol, desestabiliza de alguna forma la tranquila vida familiar que llevaban las dos mujeres hasta ahora, y llegado un punto Kazuo se rebela, una rebelión que dice mucho además de este clima social inestable desolador que se vivía en Japón.

Esta novela de Dazai desde la primera página me envolvió (el simbolismo de la serpiente es de una belleza desoladora) y entiendo perfectamente el por qué Osamu Dazai está considerado uno de los grandes de la literatura universal. Toda la novela transpira un profundo pesimismo y una melancolía que casi se puede tocar. El personaje de Kazuo es además un personaje lleno de claroscuros porque por una parte te puede parecer superficial y egoísta pero a medida que la novela avanza entiendes sus razones, se tiene que ajustar a una nueva forma de vida que la va haciendo más fuerte y mucho menos pendiente de si misma. Kazuo es un personaje que refleja perfectamente a Japón en si mismo, un personaje/pais en plena transición entre el pasado y el incierto presente.

“Tengo miedo porque veo claramente que mi propia vida acabará pudriéndose mientras yo permanezco impasible, inmersa en esta rutina diaria como una hoja de musácea que se pudre en el árbol sin caer al suelo. Esto es lo que no puedo soportar y es por eso que necesito huir de mi vida actual, aunque esto suponga desviarme del código femenino de buenas maneras”.

Y ya digo que Osamu Dazai escribe como los dioses, parece que hace sencillo lo más difícil. Esa generación casi “perdida” que se tiene que levantar tras una guerra, aquí está perfectamente reflejada en los personajes de Kazuo y de su hermano Naoji. Todos esos conflictos morales que estaba viviendo Japón en aquella época están aquí reflejados en ellos dos. Es una novela para saborear y disfrutar sin prisas. Una joya.

"Lejos de avergonzarme, me pareció que el mundo real era un organismo extraño, completamente distinto a mi propio mundo imaginario. Me asaltó una terrible sensación de abandono que jamás había experimentado y me encontré sola, gritando y gritando sin obtener respuesta en un páramo desierto bajo la luz del ocaso".

https://kansasbooks.blogspot.com/2020...

[E. G. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Note on Pronunciation of Names
Translator's Introduction

--The Setting Sun

[Pascale · Rating 1 out of 5]

Another impenetrable Japanese novel. Not that the story is difficult to follow, but the behavior of the characters doesn't quite make sense, and I fail to understand why this book is supposed to be an incisive comment on social changes in post-war Japan. The story revolves around a mother and her 2 children, Naoji and Kazuko. The family belongs to the dying aristocracy but for the Western reader at least there aren't enough indications of their exact rank or the lifestyle they were used to. All we know is that Kazuko used to go to the theatre and now she has to grow her own vegetables. Supposedly the book chronicles the demise of the aristocracy, but in fact the family's loss of wealth and status is entirely due to Naoji's opium addiction, in my view aided and abetted by his mother and sister who, with typical Japanese submissiveness just keep paying off Naoji's bills, since he is a man and mustn't be in any way challenged. Kazuko was once married but came back to her parents when she got pregnant and gratuitously led her husband to believe the fetus was not his. The baby was still-born and upon reaching 30, Kazuko, obsessed with the idea of having a child at last, gets fixated on the plan of falling pregnant by Mr Uehara, a married novelist and notorious drunkard who is part of Naoji's circle. Uehara doesn't answer her letters, but when she eventually hunts him down in Tokyo, he sleeps with her and amazingly enough, she does fall pregnant. Simultaneously, Naoji finally has the courage of committing suicide. With Naoji out of her hair and her beloved mother also dead, Kazuko has at last a bright future ahead of her. Why of all the men in the world she must get impregnated by Uehara, a dissolute character who lets his wife and daughter starve so that he can carouse in bars every evening, remained a mystery to me.

[Kimley · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the days, weeks and months following 9/11 I had a really difficult time getting a grasp on reality. I pretty much walked around the city in a daze for quite a while not knowing what to make of any of it. I frankly still don't know what to make of any of it...

So I can't even imagine what it must have been like for not just the Japanese but for everyone to go from a pre-nukes world to witnessing the near annihilation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

This is the story of one aristocratic family in Japan in the years immediately following the war and their struggles to cope not only financially but intellectually, emotionally, morally and spiritually. The war itself is scarcely mentioned but it weighs heavily on every page - the anger, resentment, confusion, disbelief.

Dazai's style is so simple and straight-forward that even when you know something is coming, the ease in which he states it frequently ends up being quite shocking.

The story deals primarily with the three members of the immediate family. The elderly, dying mother who is broken-hearted that the family can no longer afford to live in their Tokyo house and must move to a small house in the country. Her grown daughter who is the main focus of the story and who is grasping at anything, no matter how remote or abstract, that could possibly give her life any purpose or meaning. And the son who actually fought in the war and who is seeking to remove himself as far from reality as possible with drugs and alcohol.

Some of them make it and some of them don't...

Sadly Dazai himself did not and committed suicide in 1948 about a year after this book, which had given him his greatest success, came out.

[Sotiria Lazaridou · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.25⭐

[Ali · Rating 2 out of 5]

"انتظار کشیدن. ما در زندگی، لذت، خشم، تأسف و صدها احساس دیگر را می‌شناسیم، ولی همه‌ی این احساسات باهم به سختی یک درصد از وقت ما را پر می‌کنند. بقیه‌ی نود و نه درصد از وقت ما، صرف انتظار کشیدن می‌شود. من در آرزوهای گذرا انتظار می‌کشم. احساس می‌کنم سینه‌ام به‌خاطر صدای پای خوش‌بختی‌ای که از راهرو به گوش می‌رسد، دارد له می‌شود. خالی. آه، زندگی خیلی دردناک است؛ واقعیتی که این باور جهانی را تأیید می‌کند: بهتر بود به دنیا نمی‌آمدیم"

شایو یا خورشید رو به غروب، یه رمان کوتاه از اوسامو دازای هست که روایتگر داستان زندگی کازوکو، زن جوان ژاپنیه. داستان مربوط به بعد از جنگ جهانی دومه که در اون کازوکو و مادرش به‌خاطر شرایط مالی از خونه‌شون در توکیو به یه خونه روستایی نقل مکان می‌کنن و بعد از اون کم کم شاهد ارتباطات و رازها و زندگی کازوکو و خانواده‌شون هستیم.

رمان شروع اوکی‌ای داره و تقریبا خوب جلو میره. راجع شرایط ژاپن و مردمش در جنگ جهانی دوم صحبت می‌کنه، چند جایی توی داستان شاهد نمادگرایی هستیم و در کنار این‌ها، نظرات و حرف‌های خود دازای رو می‌تونیم توی اثر ببینیم با این حال تمرکز اصلی روی کازوکو، احساسات و افکارش و برادرش نائوجی هست.
با این حال دو تا چیز باعث شد من نمره کمتری به این داستان بدم. اولی خود شخصیت کازوکوعه که انگار اصلا تکلیفش با خودش روشن نیست. سر یه مسئله ساده و قدیمی عاشق میشه. نامه‌های پر سوز و گداز می‌نویسه و بعد از چند سال وقتی بالاخره طرف رو می‌بینه، دیگه ازش خوشش نمیاد. اوایل کتاب راحت‌تر می‌شد درکش کرد ولی از یه جایی به بعد درکش واسه من سخت شد.
دومین نکته هم پایان‌بندی اثر بود که وقتی خوندمش این شکلی 😐 شدم. راستش توی گروه وقتی داشتیم هم‌خوانی می‌کردیم یه سری حدس‌هایی راجع پایان زدیم و به‌نظرم اگه اونا درست از آب در می‌اومد، بهتر می‌شد ولی این پایان‌بندی یکم غیرمنتظره بود.

کتاب رو توی گروه هم‌خوانی‌ای که شقایق تشکیل داده بود خوندیم و تجربه هم‌خوانی خوبی بود و خوش گذشت.

آهان راستی اون حجم از سیاهی و این چیزایی که راجع دازای میگن رو من خیلی حس نکردم. نمی‌دونم این داستانش اونقدرا سیاه نبود یا من پوست‌کلفت‌تر شدم. به هر حال سلین و فانته رو ترجیح میدم توی این مسئله.
در آینده به «نه آدمی» هم یه فرصت میدم ولی اینکه چه زمانی باشه، نمی‌دونم.

[Zahra saeedzade · Rating 5 out of 5]

عجب کتابی. پس از مدت‌ها کتابی را به دست گرفتم و بدون اینکه زمینش بگذارم در فاصله‌ی چند ساعت خواندمش. این بین فکر کنم فقط یک شکلات خوردم!
داستان جایی شروع می‌شود که جنگ تمام شده است. جنگ‌جهانی دوم پایان یافته و تنها تباهی و اندوه و ناامیدی و فقر باقی‌مانده. خانواده‌ای اشراف‌زاده که تازه دارند طعم از دست‌دادن و فقر را می‌چشند. خانه‌شان را از دست می‌دهند و بر زمین کشاورزی کار می‌کنند. نائوجی پسر خانواده کسی‌ست که از جنگ برمی‌گردد در همه چی�� نوعی ریاکاری می‌بیند و نمی‌تواند خودش را با این زندگی سازگار کند، گرفتار عشقی عجیب می‌شود و برای خواهرش می‌نویسد:« کازوکو؛ اول‌ها به خانه‌ی نقاش می‌رفتم چون مست شیوه‌ی منحصر به فرد و شور دیوانه‌وار پسِ تابلوهایش بودم. ولی نزدیک‌تر که شدیم، بی‌فرهنگی، بی‌مسئولیتی و پلشتی‌اش سرخورده‌ام کرد. به همان نسبت غرق زیبایی زنش شده بودم. نه، بیشتر شبیه آن بود که عاشق آدمی با مهری راستین شده بودم.»
کازوکو، دختر خانواده تنها کسی‌ست که همچنان میل به زندگی دارد، میل به عاشق شدن، نترسیدن از فقر . کار کردن سخت را خار نمی‌داند. دوست دارد بچه‌ای داشته باشد و تمام تلاشش را برای بدست‌ آوردنش می‌کند، هرچند که قلبن اطمینان دارد بچه‌ای هم که به دنیا می‌آید مانند خودشان تنها یک قربانیست.
...
فکر کنم اولین کتابی‌ست که از این نویسنده چاپ شده. گوگل کردم ویکی‌پدیا فارسی هیچی در موردش نداشت. نوشته بود در سال ۱۹۴۸ مرده. همین. در سن ۳۸ سالگی‌. مشکوک بود. و داشتم فکر می‌کردم کسی که یک همچین نامه‌ی خودکشی معرکه‌ای در کتابش نوشته باشد نمی‌تواند مرگی طبیعی داشته باشد. در ویکی‌پدیای انگلیسی نوشته بود خودش را در آن سن در کانال آب انداخته و بعد از چند ماه توانستند جسدش را پیدا کنند.
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[Mariel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Osamu Dazai's The Setting Sun gave me a foriegn sort of feeling inside, like I felt different, not in a something is about to happen way, exactly. Different when you're yourself playing at being someone else? I wish I could match my heartbeat with its pulse and my impulses as I lapsed into its rhythm. I was creeped out. I was in awe. The best I can do is that it was the kind of foriegness that Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast trilogy had. I mean, it isn't a fantasy in the genre sense of the word. But it kinda is in my emotions. The images firing up in my mind's eyes are exactly that: a fantasy. A fantasy of victims, love, suicide, of living as dreaming in nightmares and hopes (childish hopes? I'll be able to tell the difference when I grow up). Throwing yourself on the fires fantasy. What else is there to do? Start a revolution. Emotional fantasy! Can't you just say that, Mariel? I know all about talking myself into shit too, same as Kazuko and her brother Naoji. (Is it any wonder that I kept thinking about Gormenghast? Decay, figurehead costume jewelry stage lights artistocracy, smoke and mirrors depression and love... What's real? Suicide as acting out... Perpetual teenagers... Ellipsis thoughts...)

The book jacket says that Kazuko is "a young aristocrat who deliberately abandons her class". Well, what class was left? They don't have any money. I think it is more embracing those fantasy feelings inside that make you feel like something could happen in those moments when you try to know yourself (keep yourself?). She met her brother's drinking buddy, a writer Mr. Uehara, six years before.

"One day six years ago a faint pale rainbow formed in my breast. It was not love or passion, but the colors of the rainbow have deepened and intensified as time has gone by. Never once have I lost it from sight. The rainbow that spans the sky when it clears after a shower soon fades away, but the rainbow in a person's heart does not seem to disappear that way. Please ask him. I wonder what he really thinks of me. I wonder if he has thought of me as of a rainbow in the sky after a shower. And has it already faded away? If it has, I must erase my own rainbow. But unless I first erase my life, the rainbow in my breast will not fade away."

I'm inclined to believe it is one of those loves that could as easily have not happened at all as it had started. That's kinda why I liked it. I could be basing that on my own "loves" that were a lot of talking myself into and build ups grown out of wanting something to be there. Blindnesses... Because of that, I can picture the rainbow and feel its shape. It is colorless because it is blind.

"At this moment, as I stood on the verge of tears, the words "realism" and "romanticism" welled up within me. I have no sense of realism. And that this very fact might be what permits me to go on living sends cold chills through my whole body."
Yes, playing...

Twelve years have passed and I have yet to progress a step beyond the Sarashina Diary stage. What in the world have I been doing all this time? I have never felt myself drawn toward revolution, and I have not even known love. The older and wiser heads of the world have always described revolution and love to us as the two most foolish and loathsome of human activities. Before the war, even during the war, we were convinced of it. Since the defeat, however, we no longer trust the older and wiser heads and have come to feel that the opposite of whatever they say is the truth about life. Revolution and love are in fact the best, most pleasurable things in the world, and we realize it is precisely because they are so good that the older and wiser heads have spitefully fobbed off on us their sour grapes of a lie. This I want to believe implicitly: Man was born for love and revolution."

"I want to believe"

"I must go on living. And, though it may be childish of me, I can't go on in simple compliance. From now on I must struggle with the world. I thought that Mother might well be the last of those who can end their lives beautifully and sadly, struggling with no one, neither hating nor betraying anyone. In the world to come there will be no room for such people. The dying are beautiful, but to live, to survive- those things somehow seem hideous and contaminated with blood."
Kazuko's relationship with her depressed mother seems to be a mirror image of my own with my mom, like exact opposites in feeling as flip sides. My side has worms and Kazuko's side has snakes (like the snake omens her mama fears, maybe). Kazuko values the beautiful uselessness of her mother (the natural aristocrat), craves her love, admires the defeat as she resolves to not do what the "victims" (her mother, brother and love Mr. Uehara) all give into (giving up, rather). It was kinda creepy feeling to me that she worshipped her mother as if she were a doll or on a stage screen instead of someone to depend on.

When the room became faintly light, I stared at the face of the man sleeping beside me. It was the face of a man soon to die. It was an exhausted face. The face of a victim. A precious victim."

"The revolution is far from taking place. It needs more, many more valuable, unfortunate victims. In the present world, the most beautiful thing is a victim."
What use is the figures and ideals? Start a revolution without a Jesus love. Victims. Huh. I love Kazuko for doing something, no matter where the love came from (throwing herself blindness, girlish fantasies, whatever). Staying the same as helplessness is only as glamorous as staring at a picture. You can't take it with you. My point, I guess, is that her mama never fought for anything. Kazuko may have loved the victims but I love the revolution. They'll leave you alone every time, those victims.

Little girls forever... What is that foriegn feeling, anyway?

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

مدل نوشتار دازای ، که زندگی روزانه با تمام اتفاقات حوصله سر بر توش و اذیت کننده و استراگل هاش، درکنار استفاده از نماد های مختلف می‌نویسه درنهایت برام جالب میشه، ولی تو مسیر خسته‌م می‌کنه.
یعنی میفهمم ک درسته که حس ناامیدی و سختی زندگی رو این طور می‌تونه منتقل کنه، ولی برا مغزم با روند اونطوری پیش رفتن سخته.

این مشکل رو با نینگن شیکاکوش هم داشتم.
البته آنقدر از اون یکی اداپشن های مختلف خوندم(مانگا و داستان و فلان) در نهایت باهاش اوکی شدم ولی به نظرم یه سریاداپشناش جذاب تر از خود اصلیه بودن.
خب این حرف اون یکی کتابه باید زیر اون نوشته می‌شده نه این‌جا.

یه سری چیزا راجع به مردم و فرهنگ ژاپن داشت. بخوای همه رو ربط بدی و نشانه یابی کنی تقریبا تماما داشت جامعه ژاپن (و بقیه؟) رو تو یه بازه زمانی می‌گفت. راجع به جنگ(پس از جنگ) و فقر و کثافت های انسانی می‌گفت.  و اینکه امید هم اون گوشه ها هست و همینه که باعث ادامه میشه.

شاید اگه به حدی ژاپنی یاد گرفته بودم که بتونم زبون اصلی بخونم نظرم خیلی متفاوت می‌شد؛ چون واقعا حس میکنم ترجمه های انگلیسی خیلی حس و شگفتی های لغوی و ادبیاتی رو از متن میگیرند.

مرسی از شقایق که با همخوانی‌ای که گذاشت باعث شد برگردم بهش و تمومش کنم بالاخره‌‌.

یه سری جملات بسیار جذاب داشت. تو روندش به هرکدوم رسیدم گذاشتم فکر کنم.
 فصل تستمنت، وصیت نامه هه رو هم دوست داشتم. 

Last year nothing happened
The year before nothing happened
And the year before that nothing happened.

این تیکه رو برا بعد جنگ گفته بود.

شاید نباید یه کپه کوئت بیارم ولی از اونجایی که اکسپورت به نوت داشت و راحت جمع شد، اینا اینجا بمونه اگه عمرم کفاف داد و یه روز برگشتم ببینم نظرم چی بوده ایناشم بخونم:

But rather than the patronizing "But being decadent is the only way to survive!" of some who criticize me, I would far prefer to be told simply to go and die. It's straightforward. But people almost never say, "Die!" Paltry, prudent hypocrites!

People always make a serious face when they tell a lie. The seriousness of our leaders these days!

You should never fall in love. Love will bring you unhappiness. If you must love, let it be when you are older, after you are thirty.

Oh, life is too painful, the reality that confirms the universal belief that it is best not to be born.

+I don't understand the world
-I don't either. I wonder if anyone does. We all remain children, no matter how much time goes by. We don't understand anything.

The Bible criticizes people who like wine, but you note it doesn't say a word about the man who drinks liquor, only about the man who is fond of it. That proves Christ was quite a drinker. I'll bet he could have put away two quarts at one sitting.

What feelings do you suppose a man has when he realizes that he will never know happiness or glory as long as he lives?

▪ Only those who wish to go on living should.
Just as a man has the right to live, he ought also to have the right to die.

▪ Those who wish to go on living can always manage to survive whatever obstacles there may be. That is splendid of them, and I daresay that what people call the glory of mankind is comprised of just such a thing. But I am convinced that dying is not a sin.

▪ I am better off dead...

I have come to understand why such things as war, peace, unions, trade, politics exist in the world. I don't suppose you know. That's why you will always be unhappy. I'll tell you why — it is so that women will give birth to healthy babies.

[daph pink ♡ · Rating 3 out of 5]

The dissolution of a noble family could have served as a good metaphor for the social transformation that occurred in post-war Japan in The Setting Sun. There are parts of the novel when this perfection may be felt, and even these parts make the book worthwhile to read.

However, the narrative subsequently took a more ominous turn, articulating the concept of suicide, and changed the book's overall focus, which is fine considering this novel was written by Osamu Dazai.