| NOTA |
(★)(Translated from the Japanese by Alfred H. Marks)(Titulo original : 禁色 [Kinjiki]／ This major novel, regarded in Japan as Mishima´s masterpiece, is as much a vivid and shocking panorama of the corrupt life of Tokyo five years after the end of the war and an attack on oppressive Japanese marriage custom as it is the affecting story of Yuichi Minami, a handsome young man with homosexual inclinations.／ Yuichi is caught between his impulses and the demands of his family. Out of his loveless marriage his anguished homosexuality burgeons, and his wife´s dreams depart. The first chapter irresistibly brings to mind ´Death in Venice.´An old and famous writer is captivated by Yuichi, and like Mann´s Aschenbach he is never again the man he was. He becomes Yuichi´s mentor, spouting satanic philosophies much like those Oscar Wilde imparted to the young Andre Gide.／ He persuades Yuichi to persue and to disappoint a number of beautiful women who have slighted the writer. Yuichi involves himself with lovers young and old, male and female. We meet ex-aristocrats dabbling in the black market, newly rich couples living promiscuously, blackmailers, and male prostitutes. There are remarkable descriptions of parks of assignation, of gay bars and of gay parties often frequented by Americans. The signs, the argot, the evasions, the frustrations, the humor, the joys, and the tragedies of this strange and hidden world are brought out with sympathy and great candor, but also with irony and aversion. The women --frivolous, cunning, talented, scheming, pliant or stubborn-- are as remarkably portrayed as the men.／ This is a novel of psychological depth, of substance and complexity, which shocks and moves and riddles, by a writer with a growing reputation throughout the world.／ ◆Yukio Mishima, born in Tokyo in 1925, began his brilliantly successful career in 1944 by winning a citation from the Emperor as the highest-ranking honor student at graduation from the Peers´ School. In 1947 he was graduated from the Tokyo Imperial University School of Jurisprudence.／ After his first novel was published, in 1948, he produced a baker´s dozen of other novels, translations of which have by now appeared in fifteen countries ; seventy-four short stories ; a travel book ; and many articles, including two in English (appearing in ´Life´ and ´Holiday´.)／ About ten films were made from his novels. ´The Sound of Waves (1956)´ was filmed twice, and one of Ishikawa´s masterpieces, ´Enjo´, was based on ´The Temple of the Golden Pavilion (1959)´.／ Also available in English are the novels ´After the Banquet (1963)´ and ´The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea (1965)´, and ´Five Modern Noo Plays (1957)´. He acted the title role in a gangster film, and American television audiences saw him on ´The Twentieth Century´ and on Edward R. Murrow´s ´Small World´.／ Despite a relentless work schedule, Mr. Mishima managed to travel widely in the United States and Europe. His death in 1970 brought an irreparable loss to the world of letters.) |
BASE de DATOS, Biblioteca del Centro Cultural de la Embajada de Japon
印刷用ページ