| NOTA |
(*)(trans. by Aiko Ito and Graeme Wilson) (★)(Proudly presented herein is Aiko Ito and Graeme Wilson´s masterful translation of the final volume of Soseki Natsume´s novel ´I Am a Cat,´ the chronicle of the adventures of a nameless feline and the humans it observes. In the four chapters which comprise this book, we watch through the penetrating eyes of the cat how its master deals with local schoolboys who keep hitting their baseball into his yard, how he can´t get up in the morning, how the three children of the house conduct themselves at the breakfast table, and much more. What could come across as mundane is no less than hilarious when described with the dexterity and wit of the writer who is perhaps Japan´s greatest. But perhaps the most intriguing aspect of these chapters is Soseki´s subtle satire upon what he considered the pretentious witlessness of Zen. In addition to the humor in the novel, of which there is a great deal, the work can be read, as The Asian Wall Street Journal puts it,´for its illumination of inner states.´ Soseki deftly analyzes various aspects of the problems surrounding so-called individualism (a relatively new concept in the Japan of his day), the strengths and weaknesses of Oriental and Western ways of thinking, and the general difficulties encountered in a modernizing society. Much of this is satirical ; all of it, even though written decades ago, is still very thought-provoking. Readers familiar with ´I Am a Cat I and II´ will not be disappointed by this last volume (except, perhaps, by the fact that it is the last) ; new readers won´t either, for the novel can be picked up and enjoyed at any point.) |
BASE de DATOS, Biblioteca del Centro Cultural de la Embajada de Japon
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