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A Fool's Life - Akutagawa Ryunosuke
A Fool's Life - Akutagawa Ryunosuke
A Fool's Life - Akutagawa Ryunosuke
by Ryunosuke Akutagawa
to Kum Masao
20 June 1927
Akutagawa Ryunosuke
1. The Age
2. Mother
3. Home
4. Tokyo
5. Self
6. Sickness
7. Painting
9. Cadaver
10. Mentor
14. Marriage
The very day after his marriage, "Right off, you
start wasting money," already he was carping at his
bride. Though actually it was not so much his as his
aunt's complaint. To him, of course, but to his aunt
as well, his bride bowed apologetically. A bowl of
yellow narcissus, her gift to him, in front of her.
15. They
16. Pillow
17. Butterfly
18. Moon
20. Shackles
21. Madwoman
22. A Painter
23. She
24. Childbirth
25. Strindberg
Standing in the doorway, in the pomegranate
blossoming moonlight looking out on drab China-
men playing mah-jong. He went back to his room.
Under a low lamp he began reading Le Plaidoyer d'un
Fou. But before he read even two pages he found
himself smiling sardonically.-----Strindberg was not
so different. In letters to his lover, the Countess, he too
wrote lies......
26. Antiquity
"A beauty."
28. Murderer
"Kill, kill......"
30. Rain
32. Conflict
33. Hero
34. Color
35. Manikin
Not to care when he died, to live a life of intensity
was his desire. But actually his life was one of constant
deference to foster parents and aunt. This submissive-
ness formed both the light and shadow of his being.
He studied the manikin standing in the tailor shop
window, curious as to how much he resembled it. Or
consciously so.-----His other self had already settled
the question. In a short story.
36. Tedium
"Right,-----and so do you....."
38. Revenge
39. Mirrors
40. Catechism
41. Sickness
He began suffering from insomnia. His strength
was beginning to fail. A number of doctors diagnosed
his sickness.-----Acid dyspepsia, gastric atony, dry
pleurisy, nervous prostration, chronic conjunctivitus,
brain fatigue,.....
Magic Flute-----Mozart
43. Night
"Yes."
44. Death
The Divan was going to give him new life. Till now
he had been unaware of the "Oriental Goethe." With
an envy almost approaching despair he saw Goethe
standing on the far shore beyond good and evil,
immense. In his eyes the poet Goethe was larger than
the poet Christ. The poet's soul holds not only the
Acropolis or Golgotha. In it the Arabian rose also
blooms. If only he had strength enough to grope in
the poet's footsteps,-----The Divan finished, the awful
excitement abating, there was only contempt for
himself. Born a eunuch.
46. Lies
47. Fire-play
48. Death
Such were the things his friend spoke of, his voice
a whisper. But several days later, he learned from
others, his friend enroute to a hot spring had started
eating roses. After his friend was committed to the
asylum he remembered the terracotta bust he had once
given him. It was a bust of the author of his friend's
beloved Inspector General. Recalling that Gogol also
had died insane, he couldn't help feeling that some
power controlled both of them.
51. Defeat
Notes
A Fool's Life