A pair of woollen socks! The solitary blue- brown image lingered in my pathetic thoughts, weeks after I had closed down the book. Verses had angrily left me, words refused to find a refuge within my wits and leisurely Mishima’s manuscript had melted into an obscure viscosity leaving behind only the recurring images of a mystified Etsuko and the pair of socks. For weeks I lived with that graphic, gaudily enhancing as the night darkened with every passing hour. How could a harmless pair of socks from Hankyu departmental store bring reckless audacity, such tenderness and then knit a violent despair? Could the diabolical nature of the socks stir up with the slightest tap of human emotions? Were those socks diabolical as the humans tend to become? “What had given this courage? The thunder? The two pair of socks she had just purchased?”Symbolism seizes the pivotal core plunging and deciphering a limitless world beyond human mediocrity. Given Mishima’s palpable affinity towards the art of Noh , the evident usage of significant cryptograms of socks, typhoid, the lion mask , the hospital ward and the mattock among the others , spells every intricate nuances of a capricious face veiled behind a stoic Noh mask. Mishima’s astute narration on the premise of a reluctant heart and cataclysmic love flows into a theatrical Noh prism where the ghosts of the past erect skeletons in the present imprisoning the desires of a heart in a ruthless world. “In the moment a captive lion steps out of his cage, he possesses a wider worlds than the lion who has known only the worlds. While he was in captivity, there were only two worlds to him- the world of the cage and the world outside the cage. Now he is free. He roars. He attacks people, eats them. He is not satisfied for there is no third world that is neither the world of the cage nor the world outside the cage.” A captured heart alien to the world of benevolent love; its reception caged behind the daunting fetters of loneliness and alienation. The burdened heart roars for emancipation from seclusion. The longing to love, the autonomy to love consumed in powerlessness to love. The heart perplexed in a world of duplicity and social repression succumbs to lunacy of obsession and vengeance for it does not know the sincerity of love , as there is no ‘third world’ beyond the emptiness of love, apart from death. Etsuko in her passivity, through her fatal love becomes a destructive yet pitiable figure hampered by her own quest against rising trepidations over her covetousness and its subsequent demise. Mishima elucidates on Etsuko’s temperament by articulating, “she found in the emptiness of her hopes the purest of meanings” A widow of a philanderer husband resides with her lascivious father-in-law in the grimy countryside. Yakichi Sugimoto’s conflicted household was a laborious abode of repulsive absurdities. The prejudices of Chieko and Kensuske floated among the wooden interiors of the household, conjectures of biased moralities hovering over the Sugimoto’s budding illicit associations with Etsuko mirrored through Etsuko’s orphaned existence, her gratification for such dire circumstances vocalized through anaesthetizing her thoughts. Etsuko’s infatuation for Saburo resurrected the primitive naivety previously misplaced in a frigid matrimony. The abundance of love and the intensity of a genuine sexual pleasure derived from the uttered enthusiasm for Saburo fetched a reprieving life-force. Even so, the reception for deliverance was cremated by feverish ravings of covetousness and shadows of Etsuko’s disaffections and guilt. “A feeling of liberation should contain a bracing feeling of negation, in which liberation itself is not agitated.”The protracted abandonment wallowing in the niggling emptiness dominated Estuko’s overwhelming arrogance enslaving her to the creativity of unquenchable passion and the eventual annihilation. The freedom to experience the power of her sexuality cowed to the socially repressive environment tightening Etsuko inescapability from the ongoing tussle of implausible passion v/s the banality of social mores and life as a whole. The tantalizing sight of a half-naked Saburo during the dance at the Autumn Festival of the Hachiman Shrine fiercely clashed her morality into vehemence of her sexuality. Mishima highlights the quintessence of a woman’s sexuality in a communally despotic culture and the acerbic reconstruction of its perversion of a toxic love. ‘Thirst’ develops into a symbolic gesticulation, hunger for implacable desires. Love becomes the timeless nectar guzzled ravenously by a vacant parched heart, incurable, suffocating the vagueness of pain and pleasure. “ The word 'love' had no proper place.”Etsuko was the fated romantic hero in a world where love was misplaced behind the countless agonies, fatigued by the dilemmas of egotistical hunger trapped between the insatiable nature of vengeance and obsession. ; the authentic self polluted by grotesque incongruity. Is love diabolical then? Anger, sorrow, fear, joy; each flourishing sentiment has its eminence on the arousing empathetic dais. Love, however clandestinely incarnates itself baffling the psychosomatic rationalities. The solitary heartfelt emotion coquettishly fleets teasing the human psyche with aspiring gentleness to reincarnate into diversified oblique sentimentalities. Love had metamorphosed into a dreadful entity for Etsuko , love had no proper place then , only proper death.The pair of socks is surely not diabolical after all. For not only did they bring back free flowing verses, but the hued woollen marvels also kept my feet warm while I typed the above words.** [ the photographic illustrations are taken from the 1967 movie adaptation of the novel. ‘Ai no Kawaki’starring the lovely Ruriko Asako ]**
Comincio spendendo due doverose parole sulla nuova edizione Guanda del romanzo, collana "Le bussole". Comoda da tenere in tasca o in borsa perché sta letteralmente nel palmo di una mano, obbrobriosa per tutto il resto: ti giochi una diottria nel leggere, sembra di tenere in mano un'agendina telefonica e il testo andava revisionato meglio perché ci sono abbastanza refusi (non pregiudicano la lettura, ma comunque uno passi, due pure, al terzo cominci a scocciarti, al quarto e seguenti lasciamo perdere). Sa di lavoro fatto di fretta. Ho comprato il libro soltanto perché era divenuto ormai difficile da reperire nelle edizioni precedenti, e perché Mishima varrebbe la pena leggerlo anche se fosse stampato sulla carta igienica!Venendo a "Sete d'amore"... bello bello bello, entra di diritto fra i miei preferiti dell'autore. Sono giunta alla conclusione, infatti, che il mio Mishima preferito è quello giovane, quello che scrive fra i venti e i trent'anni, non ancora "inghiottito" dall'ideologia e dalla pulsione di morte - chiamiamole così - che lo caratterizzeranno in seguito. La morte, intendiamoci, c'è. Permea il romanzo dall'inizio, forse dalla prima pagina, con Etsuko che teme e rifugge la frenesia di vita degli uomini comuni. Eppure è una morte romantica nel senso più ottocentesco del termine, un destino fatale e in quanto tale inevitabile. A tratti sembra di leggere una tragedia greca o shakesperiana.In una casa un po' isolata dal mondo si consuma il dramma. Etsuko è una donna bella e intelligente, schiava però dell'apatia e della noia del vivere in campagna. Si concede al vecchio Yakichi per sostanziale indolenza. Il suo cuore, però, inizia ad ardere di passione per Saburo, giovane garzone di umili origini, la cui naturale e dirompente fisicità finisce per stregare la donna. Saburo è - e appare agli occhi di Etsuko - come un essere totalmente corporeo, tanto quanto lei appare un "mostro spirituale" agli occhi del ragazzo. Solo carne da un lato, dunque, solo spirito dall'altro. Una dicotomia questa che è molto cara a Mishima.Incapace di tollerare la forza di una tale passione, Etsuko tenterà a fasi alterne di salvarla o di spegnerla, fino a sprofondare sempre più nel tormento e nella follia che sfoceranno infine nell'imprevedibile atto finale.Binomio di amore e morte, per un romanzo che si innesta fin da subito sul tema cardine della gelosia e dell'amore non corrisposto. Non corrisposto l'amore di Yakichi per Etsuko, non corrisposto quello di Etsuko verso Saburo. Gli unici amori che potrebbero realizzarsi non sono amori sinceri (si vedano Saburo e Miyo o, in maniera diversa, Chieko e Kensuke).Lo stesso amore di Etsuko per il primo marito Ryosuke, morto di tifo, era un amore che trovava nella gelosia il suo punto fondante. Era un amore completamente egoistico, poiché nella gelosia - o peggio, nella malattia -, Etsuko trovava il vero modo per sentire il marito vicino e, contemporaneamente, sfuggire alla propria apatia. Il meccanismo della gelosia si innesca anche con Saburo, fino a conseguenze estreme: perché i sentimenti, a un certo punto, sfuggono completamente di mano e non si può sfuggire alla loro trascinante forza. Etsuko e Yakichi in questo sono identici, similissimi. Per questo si comprendono.Con l'unica differenza che, mentre Yakichi è umano, Etsuko è assoluto, un "mostro spirituale" che soffre, si contorce, si dimena, un mostro che ha sete d'amore. Lei, nella sua passione e nel suo amore, è completamente assoluta. Per questo riesce a spingersi fino al limite più estremo, per questo riesce a dormire pacificamente dopo aver compiuto un atto abominevole. Al contrario di Yakichi, semplice spettatore, che trema insonne.Insomma un romanzo intenso, sensuale, raffinato, elegantissimo. La prosa è ancora leggermente più acerba - specie nelle prime pagine - rispetto al Mishima maturo, ma si tratta comunque di un'opera che meriterebbe un posto fra le grandi tragedie, tanto è ben raccontata. Pochi eventi ma un'indagine dell'animo e del cuore umano impareggiabile. Mishima era di una sensibilità senza fine. Il tutto come sempre sullo sfondo del Giappone del dopoguerra, con le ferite del conflitto ancora aperte, dipinto magistralmente da Mishima. Eccellenti in particolare le ultime pagine, nonché la scena della festa al villaggio: intensa e vitalissima, di grande forza espressiva. Lettura assolutamente consigliata!
What do You think about Thirst For Love (1999)?
جريمة ايتسوكو ما هي الا انتقام سافر لإمرأة مجروحة تعاني من حرمان الحب والعشق في حياتها .. فهي قد وجدت وسيلة لإشباع رغبتها الجنسية ، ولو كانت بازدراء ، من خلال علاقتها مع ياكيشي الذي هو والد زوجها فمن خلال هذه العلاقة استمدت ايتسوكو بعض من القوة والسلطة في البيت الذي تشترك به العائلة تقريبا بسكناه .. فهل ان انتقام ايتسوكو الذي وصل الى حد القتل كان لشدة تفاقم غيرتها من علاقة الحب التي ربطت بين خادمتها ميو والعامل سابورو، الذي هو بمثابة السهل الممتنع .. فهي تشتاق وتحن اليه من جهة ولكنها بنفس الوقت تفرح لغيابه ووجوده أمامها يشعرها بالغضب لأنه لم يكترث لحبها ولم يحرك ساكنا .. فآثرت ان تقتله لأجل ان تحافظ على قوتها وسلطتها فهي لا تبحث عن الشبق والجنس بل هي متعطشة للحب وحده .. أم هل هو كبرياؤها الذي منحها كل تلك القوة في تلك اللحظة المحددة لتقف ضد مشيئة قلبها وأحاسيسها وتقضي على حبها وتبرهن لياكشي وللجميع من حولها بأنها ستظل الأقوى ولن ترضى بالخسارة والعذاب مطلقاً ؟
—Ala Jadooa
I wasn't really feeling this until the scene at the shrine festival, where something cracks and the story falls into place as Saburo mans up and gets sexy. Before then, vague Etsuko appears to be lusting after a pre-pubescent half-wit.I thought Etsuko came through the story rather well, considering everything that happens to her. I assume she's the defence's star witness when Mishima is accused of misogyny? When Saburo said "I love you" to avoid an awkward conversation, I thought "the dumb cow's going to fall for it!" but she was ahead of me and read the situation the best.Yakichi, however, is further proof that Mishima just hates old people.Although the Sugimoto family have land and staff, there's something strangely suburban about the location and attitudes. The women are always cooking or washing-up and we hear about the order in which they take their baths. It feels like the first Mishima I've read set in the commuter belt. I liked Kensuke and Chieko and their commentary on their suburban nightmare.Things I learnt from this book:a) There's a fruit called "pomelo".b) The Takarazuka all-female musical theatre company is named after the Hankyu-Takarazuka railway line."Yakichi said 'Why were you in his room?''I went to look for his diary'Yakichi's mouth moved indistinctly. He said nothing more.""'Sometimes jiltings run in series – like miscarriages. Her nervous system has just got into the habit of it, I suppose, and when she falls in love it has to end in a miscarriage.'""People who only wear ready-made clothes are apt to doubt the very existence of tailors.""The magnitude of pain leads people to believe in the indestructability of the body.""'But why, why, did you kill him?''He was making me suffer, that's why.''But it wasn't his fault.''Not his fault? That's not so. He got what he deserved for hurting me. Nobody has the right to cause me pain. Nobody can get away with that.''Who says they can't?''I say so. And what I say, no one can change.''You’re a terrifying woman.'"
—David
Reading this "Thirst for Love" by Yumiko Mishima was mysteriously disappointing as compared to his "The Temple of the Golden Pavilion" or "The Sea of Fertility," the romance-cum-tragedy tetralogy. However,"Death in Midsummer and Other Stories" is not included here due to its different genre. One of the reasons, I think, is that I found reading both uniquely enjoyable and kept in mind as his admirable standard but, contrasively, I kept reading this novel, nothing touching or sentimental perceived till nearly the unimaginable climactic end of the story, I can't help wondering if Etsuko has done too far and why. However, I tell myself it's just something done in the name of drama, not logic or law.[To continue]
—umberto
