Bellezza e tristezza | 
so-soA very erotic portrait of the tail-end of a passionate love affair between a teenage girl and a much older man, both brought into close orbit again, years later, by the man‘s travels to Kyoto to see the city‘s temple bells ring in a New Year. This is Kawabata‘s last (completed) novel and an intensely psychological one at that, the tautness of his doomed love triangle softened by his painterly impressions of a Japan passing through her seasons.
pickThe story of dysfunctional lives marred by their own twisted wickedness is intermixed with evocative descriptions of natural scenes of quiet beauty, creating a deep contrast between the delicate but imposing beauty of Nature,the charm of quotidian human activity and the distorted ugliness in the characters‘ psyche. Like insects under a microscope, their human folly is exposed, showing us the malignantly warped side of Nature within the human heart
“Yet the misty spring rain softened the outline of the mountain across the river and made it even more beautiful... The slender threads of rain vanished into the river without a ripple. Cherry blossoms were intermingled with young green leaves, the colors of the budding trees all delicately subdued in the rain.”
Image source: http://laeren.net/pers/galleries/japan/kyoto-arashiyama.php
“The main gate of the Nisonin Temple was said to have been brought from Hideyoshi‘s Fushimi Castle in the early seventeenth century. It had the imposing air of a great castle gate.”
I love how Kawabata intermixes Kyoto site references into the story along with evocative descriptions of the beautiful landscape.
Image source: http://nisonin.jp/visit/?lang=en
I‘ve never heard of anyone speaking for the weather but found it endearing :) makes me want to visit that place!
“The photograph showed a double image of the famous Gion geisha Okayo: the girl on the right, the fingers of both hands outstretched, was almost full face; and the other, fists clenched, was turned slightly aside.”
This is a Japanese version of rock-paper-scissors, in the following link where I found this picture is the explanation. I also found a wonderful video of modern day geisha playing: https://www.flickr.com/photos/blue_ruin_1/7055421541
“The dark purple kerchiefs of young Kabuki actors flutter in the river breeze- these beautiful youths are shy in the bright moonlight, and seductively shade themselves with their fans, so gracefully that those who see them are too entranced to avert their gaze”
Image source: https://wsimag.com/art/6499-kabuki-japanese-theatre-prints
pickIntense, sensual, poetic. This will stay with me for a while. Thanks @JulietteGF !
... she was impressed by the raindrops glittering in the young pines along the path through the temple compound. Each needle was like a flower stem with a single droplet of rain clinging to its very tip; the trees seemed all abloom with dew flowers.
What were memories? What was the past that he remembered so clearly? When Otoko moved to Kyoto with her mother, Oki was sure they had parted. ... the Otoko of his memories was the most passionate woman he had ever known. And did not the vividness even now of those memories mean that she was not separated from him?
pickA story of love and revenge, the whole written in a very poetic language, it was a real pleasure to read! Through this book, I also discovered Japan through the eyes of fictional painters. I highly recommend this book.
My reading challenge met yesterday to crown the winner, who was Ahmed, my boyfriend. He got a small treasure from the other players.
