 |
| A season of Spring Snow out in the green with specks of gold, in a country with neither spring nor snow. |
Spring Snow
by Yukio Mishima
ePub version 512kb, 394 pages
We can only surmise how many dissertations have been written to try to figure out why Yukio Mishima committed seppuku after completing his Sea of Fertility Tetralogy. It also seems like the wrong question to ask, especially when you’re reading him for the first time.The richness of Mishima’s metaphors takes a life of their own. When I read Spring Snow it is as if a huge octopus sat in my head. The octopus started moving its hands – orchestrating the story in my imagination. Take the ubiquitous kimono as a symbolism, for instance. The color, folds, and movement are intricately woven into the story.
"What it was he didn't know, but whenever this bright certainty seemed to shine within his grasp, the fluttering sleeves of Satoko's aquamarine kimono interposed themselves, trapping him once again in the quicksands of indecision."It may not be the best comparison, but I succumb to saying how it often swiftly flew me to the feelings of aflutter as in a Jane Austen novel, or even Downton Abbey. The Japanese, as always, take the world’s best without forgetting their own.
So the novel was not just all nervousness and gushing excitement. The sorrows were so gracefully written, and the characters carried out their conflicts pitting elegance against logic.
This octopus sure works with such elegant hands.
