| NOTA |
(★)(trans. by Francis Mathy)(Titulo original : idem [門])(Soseki Natsume [1867-1916] is generally regarded as Japan´s foremost writer of the early modern period. His novel ´Mon [The Gate]´, published in 1910 and considered one of the outstanding works of his maturity, is a carefully observed portrayal of a young couple who, by an impulsive marriage without the consent of their parents, cut themselves off from relatives and friends. Poverty compels them to live very modestly and with little hope of future prosperity, but their enforced isolation brings a new intimacy and tolerance to their relationship. The husband´s attempt to find a gateway to new understanding brings an absorbing climax to the story.／ It is this climax that points up the novelist´s thesis. As Okazaki and Viglielmo say of it in their ´Japanese Literature in the Meiji Era´, the hero Sosuke ´goes alone to knock at the gate of a Zen Buddhist temple to seek peace of mind. The gate [hence the title], however, does not open, and Sosuke knows he is fated to stand forever outside it. One who has bravely achieved his love also must bear the burden of a life of anxiety.´ And yet, as these authors point out,´the spiritual struggle that comes from love is not a denial of love.´／ The Times Literary Supplement has described Soseki as ´one of the most important Japanese writers of the modern period.´ The Spectator says of him :´A writer to be judged by the highest standards. His stories create, after the fashion of all great writers, a new and completely individual reality.´ And the P.E.N. International Bulletin of Selected Books calls him ´the most widely read Japanese writer in modern times, whose work is a byword in Japanese life.´／ ◆Soseki Natsume was born in Tokyo in 1867 and was educated at the Tokyo Imperial University, where he studied English literature. In 1900 he was sent to England as a government scholar. He returned to Japan in 1903 and succeeded Lafcadio Hearn as lecturer in English at the Tokyo Imperial University. In 1907 he became a full-time writer and produced a group of carefully written novels treating the spiritual torment of Japan´s urban intellectuals. He died in 1916. It is only in recent years that his work has become widely known outside Japan.) |
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