Appreciation of the foreign fairy tale "[Japanese] Ogawa Miaki - The Negro Who Came to the Harbor"
[Japanese] Ogawa Miaki
A boy, who seemed to be ten years old at the most, was playing a flute. The sound of the flute is sometimes as sad as the autumn wind sweeping away the leaves, and suddenly as joyful as a bird singing in a beautiful green forest on a bright spring day.
People who heard this flute were attracted by its melodious and beautiful sound and its sadness, and they gathered around it. They saw that the flute player was a boy of nearly ten years old, who was not only weak, but also blind.
Seeing the boy, people could not help but be surprised, and all thought in their hearts: how poor this child!
But there was another person beside the boy - a beautiful girl of about 16 or 17 years old, who looked like the boy's sister, was singing and dancing to the boy's flute.
The girl was wearing a light blue dress, with long hair and eyes as bright and clear as stars. She was barefoot, dancing lightly on the sand, as if the petals of flowers fluttered in the wind, as if small butterflies fluttered in the fields. The girl was a little shy and sang not too loudly. Although the audience around can not hear the lyrics, but the low voice, sometimes let people feel enchanted; sometimes let people feel like wandering in the autumn wind in the depths of the lonely dense forest general lonely and sad.
People do not know this pair of singing, playing the flute to make a living siblings from where, they have never seen such a poor, so beautiful, so kind beggar.
This pair of siblings have no relatives, nor do they have any backing. Already dead parents left them in the vastness of the world, they have only to suffer - and debilitated, blind brother only rely on his sister, sister is his lifeline. The kind sister is also very much in love with her brother, and she can sacrifice her own life for him. This is a rare pair of affectionate siblings.
The younger brother was born a good flute player, and the older sister was born a good singer. In search of a way to survive, they play the flute and dance in the square near the harbor.
As long as it was a good day, when the sun rose, the sister led her brother to the square and never delayed. They played the flute and danced and sang here all day long, and only left at dusk to go back to a place unknown to the people.
The golden sun shone in the air. The warm wind blew through the grass, carrying the flute and the song one by one to the bright South Seas.
The sister danced and sang every day, but she never felt tired when she heard the sound of her brother's flute.
The sister was originally a shy girl, in the beginning, people gathered around, eyes are focused on themselves, she was shy, singing slowly become smaller. Later, as soon as she heard the sound of her brother's flute, she felt that she was the only one who was flying freely in the vast flower-filled wilderness. So she was able to dance boldly, dancing as briskly as a little butterfly.
A summer day, the sun showed its red face early, the bees looking for flowers and nectar, and the trees towering in the distance of the square like countless giants, quietly and breathlessly floating under the clear sky.
The harbor side from time to time came in and out of the ship issued a dull whistle. A trace of black smoke floated in the bright beige sky. This is because a ship is going out on a long voyage through the blue waves.
As usual, there was a wall of black people around the siblings today.
One man said, "I've never heard such a beautiful flute!"
"Me too. Traveling all over the world, I have never heard such a beautiful flute. Listening to the sound of this flute, the past that I had once forgotten about, all came back to my heart and surfaced in front of my eyes." Another man said.
"What a lovely boy he would have been if his eyes were not blind!" A woman said.
"I have never seen such a beautiful girl!" An older, female tourist carrying luggage said.
"By her beauty, she doesn't even need to do such a thing! Which one doesn't want such a beautiful girl!" A short man tiptoed on his tiptoes, looking and talking at the same time, said.
"There must be someone behind them, making money off of them!"
"No, this girl is not that kind of person. She must be suffering for her brother." A half-silent woman retorted.
People talked to their hearts' content. Some threw money at their feet, others took it at face value and slipped away without paying at all.
It was dusk, and the day was about to pass peacefully. The sky over the sea floated black silverware general color, tend to the western mountains of the sunset red. The people went home one after another. The sister in the light blue dress lovingly led her brother, and they were also ready to leave the place.
At that moment, a strange man came up to the sister and said to her, "I am sent by the wealthy lord of this town. Our lord says he has something to discuss with you and asks you to take a walk."
So far, there had been a few people who had said this to Sister. Sister thought to herself, "What a nuisance, here we go again! However, today's invitation is a famous rich man, it seems that it is not good to simply refuse. What to do? Sister is very difficult.
The sister opened her mouth and asked the man, "What does he want with me?"
"That I am not sure. You will know if you go. One thing I do know is that it's not a bad thing for you."
"I can't leave my brother behind to go somewhere else. Lead your brother, okay?"
"I have not heard of asking your brother to go too. His Lordship only wants to see you alone, but it will never take up much of your time. I have a carriage, and besides, there is still some time to go before dark ......"
The sister did not answer at once; she considered a little, and then asked, "Then please promise to let me come back in less than an hour. "
"I'm afraid it won't take that long. Please give me some face as a messenger and hurry up and come with me to the Wealthy Lord's house! The wealthy lord is already waiting for you!"
The younger brother sat down on the grass next to him, flute in hand, and obediently waited for his sister.
The sister made the look of one who considers a problem, thought a little, let the evening breeze blow the corners of her coat, and approached her brother barefoot. Kindly, she said to her brother, who greeted her with an inward smile, "Sister has something to do elsewhere for a while, so don't go anywhere, just wait here, sister will be back in a while."
"Sister, are you not coming back? I have this premonition ......"
"Why say such heartbreaking words? Sister will come back to you in less than an hour." Sister replied with tears in her eyes.
The younger brother had a hard time figuring out what was going on and nodded silently.
The sister rode away in the opulent carriage led by that messenger. The carriage creaked and rattled on the sand as it drove off into the distance under the dusky sky.
My brother sat down on the grass and shuffled his ears to the creaking and rattling, from near to far, from far to nothing.
An hour passed, two hours passed, and his sister had not returned. It was already dark, the sand was starting to get damp, the night sky looked like it had been dyed a deep blue color, and the stars were starting to twinkle. Occasionally a relatable bright light flashed over the harbor, but the blind brother could not see it.
Only the hot wind, which traveled in the darkness, blew from the sea and brushed the face of the brother waiting for his sister. The brother could not bear it and finally cried. Sister, where have you been? What should I do if my sister never returns? Restlessness brought him to tears.
The younger brother remembered that his sister usually always danced with the sound of her flute, and if she could hear it now, she would surely remember herself and return to her side.
So the younger brother played the flute with all his heart. He had never played the flute with emotion and heart as he did now. Sister can hear the sound of the flute, right? If she heard it, she would definitely return to her side! Therefore, the younger brother played the flute with all his heart.
At that moment, a swan flew by, sad to lose its baby in the North Sea and ready to fly back to the south.
The swan flew silently over the mountains and forests, over the rivers and the sea, and continued its journey back to the south. Tired of falling on the water's edge to rest, and then continue to rush. Lost his beloved children, the swan has no heart to sing, it only silently, silently through the dark night, skimming over the twinkling stars, never stop flying.
Suddenly, the swan heard a sad flute. The sound of the flute contains deep feelings, not ordinary people can play out. The swan knows that only people with sadness in their hearts can play this tune, because the death of the swan's children has made her taste the sadness, and it understands the cryptic words in the sound of the flute.
The swan wanted to find out where the sad flute sound came from, as if it were a thread invisible to the naked eye, broken and connected. It slowly spread its silver wings and toured the night sky a few times before realizing that it was coming from the square below. The swan landed carefully on the square and saw a young man sitting on the grass playing the flute.
The swan walked toward the teenager and asked, "Why are you playing your flute here alone?"
The blind boy, hearing a kind, affectionate voice inquiring about himself, told the swan how his sister had left him behind and had not returned since.
"Poor boy! I would change into your sister to take care of you. I am a swan who has lost her child and wants to go back to a distant country. Let's go to a southern country, and let's live by playing flutes and dancing on that calm sea! Now, I will turn you into a swan like me, and let us fly over oceans and mountains ......"
The blind boy really became a swan. That night, the two swans left the dark and lonely square overlooking the shimmering harbor, spread their wings and flew off into the distance, and in no time, disappeared into the night sky. After they flew by, the stars twinkled in the sky again, the earth was wetter with dew, and the grass and trees soundlessly went to sleep.
Not long afterward, my sister returned from the rich man's house. It had taken longer to go than originally expected, and she missed her brother. But her brother was gone, and she could not find him. The ground was faintly illuminated by starlight, and the nightshade, which had not been seen before, was in lovely bloom. The collar of my sister's blue dress was studded with jewels, which glittered in the starlight - something that had not been seen before.
From the next day on, as if mad, Sister walked barefoot through the streets of the harbor, looking everywhere for her brother.
The moonlight, like wet silk, shone on the houses of the harbor. In a fruit store, there were some fruits from a distant island. The moonlight shone on the fruits, which gave off an exquisite fragrance. The moonlight also shone on the glass of the tavern, where many people drank, sang and laughed. The poles of the ships moored in the harbor were also sprinkled with moonlight, and the flags fluttered in the wind on the masts. The waves, as usual, beat sadly up to the shore and shrink back sadly.
The sister gazed blankly at the scene, drowning in sorrow, still searching for her brother. Where on earth has the brother gone?
One day, a foreign passenger ship anchored in the harbor. After a while, the ship came down a group of people dressed in a variety of cheerful people. These people were from the southern countries, their costumes were light and bright, their faces were tanned by the sun, and they carried baskets woven of vines in their hands. Interspersed among the crowd was a short, strange black man as short as the little people in the fabled Lilliputian kingdom.
The black man looked around with interest as he walked along the sunrise road. He came across a girl in a light blue dress where the street turned a corner. When the girl looked back at the rare black man, the black man stopped and stared at the girl's face in amazement, then walked briskly to the girl.
"Aren't you the girl who sings on the southern islands? When did you come here? I saw you the day before I left there!"
The girl was stunned by this sudden question, "No, I have not been to the southern islands, you are mistaken!"
"That's right, it's you. Dressed in pale blue, singing and dancing to the accompaniment of the flute of a boy who has just turned ten and is blind, surely you are right." The black man said as he examined the girl with a skeptical eye.
Hearing the black man's words, the girl was even more surprised.
"A ten-year-old boy playing a flute? Is that boy blind?"
"The people on the island speak well of them. Because of the girl's beauty, the king of the island once took her to the palace with a golden palanquin, but the girl took pity on her brother and did not agree. There were many swans on that island, especially on the coast where they played their flutes and danced, and the swans were in flocks, and at dusk they danced together in the sky, and it was simply beautiful!" The black man replied. He thought he might have recognized the wrong person.
The sister tore at her long hair and said in agony, "Ah! What can I do? There is another 'I' in this world. This 'I' is more affectionate than me, more kind than me, and it is this 'I' that has claimed my brother!" She was so sorry that her liver broke.
"Where is that island? I'm going to find a way to go and see ...... it," the girl asked.
The black man pointed to the harbor and replied, "Thousands of miles away from here there is a silver ocean, after the ocean, on land, but also need to cross the overlapping ups and downs, snow-covered mountains. It's not easy to get there!"
It was summer dusk. The sea is dressed in colorful brocade, and the sky is full of burning red clouds, just like yesterday.
(Translated by Li Pei Liu Zi Jing)
The most haunting image embedded in this fairy tale, lush and lush, swoops into our vision -
An earthly plaza by the sea. Every day, a blind boy and a fair maiden of heavenly beauty come here with the morning sun; they are a sister and brother in distress and ****, selling art for a living, the brother plays the flute, the sister sings and dances. Poetry will run out from the brother's flute, sister's dance and song ......
The author describes the brother's flute in this way: "The sound of the flute is sometimes as sad as the autumn wind sweeping away the fallen leaves, and suddenly as bright as the bright spring day in the beautiful green forest in the joyful singing of the birds as happy. "
The author describes his sister's dancing and singing in this way, "Barefooted, she danced briskly on the sand as if the petals of a flower were fluttering in the wind, as if little butterflies were fluttering indulgently in the fields." "The low singing voice, sometimes let a person feel enchanted; sometimes let a person feel as if wandering in the autumn wind lonely dense forest depths of general loneliness and sadness."
This flute, this dance, this song, full of and sunshine as bright as the joy, but also overflowing with a river of spring water like sadness.
The tragedy is more moving than the comedy. Sympathy for the weak, the heart to the good, is human nature. These two "so poor, so beautiful, so kind beggars" experienced the human tragedy, flowing with the flute and song, and sunshine, together with the readers into the heart of the field ......
The peak of the strange is that, in this fairy tale, to give the two siblings In this fairy tale, it is not a human being who gives the siblings a helping hand, but a beautiful swan! Those who watch the siblings selling human beings composed of "a layer of black wall", but no one came forward, which is really a great irony of the world's cruelty. In front of the swan's noble and elegant image, not as the humility of human exposure (more shameful is that some of the ornamental spectators "eyes on the slip, not to give money").
The swan's rescue comes at a time when the siblings are at their most desperate. The sister has been coaxed away by a rich man's errand boy and has not returned for a long time. Standing all alone, the blind brother plays a sad flute in the meadow, like a bonfire in the darkness, lighting up the vision of the swans flying in the night sky. "The same people are at the end of the world, and they have met before." This swan, who has just lost her children, listens to the sound of the flute, and her natural motherhood is like a spring tide, and she pours out her love like a waterfall in the sunshine on the blind boy who is hanging by a thread: "Poor child! I would like to change into your sister to take care of you."
It was at that moment that the fantasy blossomed, when the swan, who was y human, and the blind boy, who was all alone, met--
The blind boy became a swan!
The two swans - a swan sister and a swan brother turned into a blind boy - took off and left the dark and lonely human square, spreading their wings and flying far away... ...
This beautiful scene is like white lightning, reflecting the night, but also this fairy tale reflected transparent!
*** The presentation gives us a surprise, the depth of the plot still makes us sigh: returning to the square, the sister does not see her brother, "as if crazy, barefoot walking through the streets of the harbor, looking for his brother everywhere." When the truth finally dawns on her, she "tore at her long hair" and bitterly blamed herself. We don't know what happened to the young girl when she went to the rich man's house - the work doesn't go into detail - but the fact that the sister came back with more jewels on her dress than she had ever had before seems to suggest something. Sister's kindness and her love for her brother, so that we will not be too much blame for her breach of trust in her brother's behavior, but from the depths of her heart, she found that there is another person in the world than her sister to her brother more affectionate, more kind: the blind brother with the blind swan sister wandering the world, in the king with a golden palanquin to pick her up to enter the palace because of pity for his brother and did not agree. And why did she herself, as a dear sister, go with the errand sent by the rich and wealthy? Why not refuse? Finally, she "cracked the liver and gall" and "regret". This "regret", on the one hand, makes us see the heart of gold beating in her own sister's chest, and on the other hand, makes us see that her sister's self-reproach is not unreasonable. Ogawa Miaki's reflection on human nature can be described as insightful and penetrating.
What is meaningful is that the most exciting image - the brother playing the flute and the sister singing and dancing - appears again at the end of the fairy tale. The recurrence of the picturesque scene of selling art is full of the beauty of retrospection, which is more and more thought-provoking. Things have changed, the brother is still the same blind brother, but the sister is not the real sister, but the swan turned into a sister. Breathtaking is that the sound of the flute, flocks of swans and this pair of siblings dancing together in the dusk. What a spectacularly beautiful sight it was!
How should the dear sister, who knows everything, act?
The author does not write explicitly. His ending contains the beauty of subtlety: "It was already summer dusk. The sea was clothed in colorful brocade, and the sky, like yesterday, was full of burning red."
Lyricism, the artistic personality of Ogawa Miaki, is one of the basic elements that cause his artistic style. No wonder people call Ogawa Miaki's fairy tales colorful rainbows and brilliant fireworks!
(Daida)