[Japanese] Sakaguchi Yasugo
Translated by Lin Tao
Whenever the cherry blossoms are in full bloom, people carry wine and eat glutinous rice dumplings to roam under the forest of cherry blossoms, reveling in the infinite springtime, and marveling at it as a winning scene on earth
. In fact, this is just a false illusion. Why do you say so
? It was after the Edo period when people gathered under the cherry blossom forest and got drunk and vomited. In those days, only people felt the horror of the cherry blossom forest, and no one marveled at the beauty of the scenery. Nowadays, when we talk about
under the cherry blossom forest, the world immediately associates it with a bustling
scene of people drinking and clamoring, however, under the cherry blossom forest, if you don't see any people, it is actually
extremely scary. This is not my personal opinion. In Nohra1, a mother goes crazy when she can't find her son, who was taken away by traffickers, and then goes into the cherry blossom forest in full bloom, chasing after her child's apparition in the endless sea of blossoms, and then ends up dying and resting underneath the blossoms
(I'm making this up here).
It's a horror if you can't see anyone under the cherry blossom forest.
In the past, you had to pass through a forest of cherry blossoms to cross Suzuka Mountain. It didn't matter when the flowers weren't in bloom, but when they were in season, passersby would go wild under the cherry blossom
forest. So, everyone spreads their legs and runs in the direction of the flowerless green and
dead trees. But while one person was fine, running through the
flowers to the safety of the trees where they could catch their breath and calm down, two
or more people were in trouble. Because people are both fast and slow on their feet,
those left behind will yell, "Hey - wait for me!" By that time, both of them
were in a trance, and the one in front would ditch his friend and just run forward
on his own. So, after crossing the cherry blossom forest of Suzuka Ridge, the two of them changed from friends
to enemies, no longer trusting each other. As a result, people stopped
traversing the cherry blossom forest, preferring to take a detour through other mountain paths. Gradually, the cherry blossom forest was
removed from the traveler's path, no longer seen by pedestrians, and
was surrounded by the silence of the mountains.
After many years had passed, a mountain bandit took up residence in the mountains. The mountain bandit was very brutal, and often ran to the town below the mountain to rob clothes and take lives.
But when he came to the Cherry Blossom Forest, he was equally terrified and unsettled.
So he hated cherry blossoms, always muttering in his heart: cherry blossoms,
could be really scary, let a person hate it. There was no wind
sweeping through the shade of the flowers, but there was a whimpering wind in his ears, and yet there was no wind at all, and
no sound at all. The only thing was his own figure and footsteps, enveloped by the silent,
cold and motionless wind, only to feel like rustling down
the petals of flowers, his own soul is rapidly dispersing, and the life is gradually
withering away. I wanted to close my eyes and run away screaming, but I was afraid of hitting
the cherry blossom tree. And so, it became even more delirious.
However, the mountain bandit was ultimately a composed man, and he never
knew what it meant to have regrets. He only felt that there was something fishy about it, and always
wanted to wait until next year, this year was really not in the mood to think about it.
Next year, when the cherry blossoms bloom again, I will seriously consider it.
Every year he thinks this way, more than ten years have passed, and this year he still
thinks: it is better to think about it next year. In a flash, it was the end of the year.
In this kind of delay, the mountain bandit's wife from the first
one into seven, the eighth wife also with her man's clothes a
dao snatched from the city. People, killed.
While killing the woman's man, the bandits felt that something was
not right, that it seemed different than usual. Although it is not clear exactly where
not the same, but always feel strange, just he has always been in the heart does not load things,
so also did not put this matter in particular on the heart.
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1) A Japanese classical musical theater, a medieval fusion of foreign and Japanese
traditional dance music, with actors wearing Noh masks and performing to the accompaniment.
② The author here cites the story of the ballad <Sakura J J1).
The ending of the story was originally a happy ending. The abbot of a temple and his disciples encountered a madwoman in the cherry blossom forest, and the abbot's disciples were identified as the madwoman's lost
son, and the mother and son returned home together.
Originally, the mountain bandit did not want to kill the man, and was only going to and as usual
like stripped off the clothes, kicked him to let him get out of the way, but the woman is really posture
outstanding, and suddenly he was up to the knife, killed the man. This was not
only something he didn't expect, but even the woman was surprised. When the mountain
thief turned back to look, the woman had already gone limp and was staring at him in disbelief.
"From today, you are my wife." Hearing this, the woman nodded
. The mountain bandit reached down and pulled the woman up, who said, "I can't walk, you
carry me." "Okay, okay." The mountain bandit answered with his mouth full, and easily carried the woman
on his back and walked. To the mountain slope steep place, the mountain thief said, "here
dangerous, down to walk on their own." The woman just tightly embrace him, mouth said
"Don't, don't!" Just wouldn't come down.
"Such a steep road, like you, a man in the mountains can not walk,
how can I walk? You don't even think about it!"
"That's true, too. Good, good, good." The man was tired and exhausted
but in a good mood. "You might want to come down for a while. I'm strong
strong! It's not that I'm tired and want to take a breather, I just hate that I don't have my eyes in the back of my
head and I'm so anxious to keep carrying you. I just want you to come down so
I can get a closer look at your pretty face."
"No, no." Said the woman as she made to floor the man's neck
. "I can't stay in such a cold place for a moment. Don't you
stop, hurry up and carry me to your house in one breath, or I won't be
your wife! If you make me feel lonely, I'll bite off my tongue and kill myself
for you!"
"Good, good. Got it. Can't I promise you?"
The mountain thief secretly imagined the future
life after having such a beautiful wife, and his heart was filled with happiness like eating honey. He
revitalized his spirit, shrugged his shoulders, and spun in place, letting the woman look up the front
mountain, the back mountain, the left mountain, and the right mountain.
"All these mountains are mine." The mountain thief said with no small amount of pride, but the
woman simply ignored it. He was surprised and sorry.
"Listen, all the mountains, trees, canyons, and even the clouds that
emerge from the canyons here are mine."
"Hurry up and go! I don't want to stay here under the mountain
cliffs that are all lumps of rock."
"Okay, okay. I'll make you something nice to eat when we get home."
"Can't you go any faster? Run!"
"It's just hard for me to run alone on this hilly stretch."
"So you're also a good-looking thing. I am considered to be in bad luck
and have become the wife of a useless man. Ah, ah. In the future
what will I live on."
"What foolishness! With this little slope?"
"Ah, what a rush. You're already tired."
"Nonsense. Once we get over this hill, I'll run for you, and I'm afraid
that even the deer won't be able to catch up."
"But you're out of breath and your face looks terrible."
"Everything is hard at first. I can run faster than you can roll your eyes on your back
when I get going."
But the bandit was exhausted, and every joint in his body was
falling apart. By the time he reached the door of his house, his eyes were dizzy and his ears ringing, his voice was hoarse
weak, and he couldn't even speak half a word. The seven wives of the family welcomed him
out, and the mountain bandit's body stiffened as if it were stone, and it was with great difficulty that he was able to release the women
from their backs.
The 7 wives looked at the stunningly beautiful woman
in front of them in surprise, and the woman also looked at the 7 wives covered in filth in surprise.
There were some good-looking wives among the 7 wives, but right now there was not even a pretty
shadow to be found. The woman hid behind the man in disgust.
"Who are these village girls?"
"My former wives." The man looked embarrassed, and in his haste
added the word "former", which should have been a good answer, but
the woman would not relent.
"Oh? Your former wife?"
"Ahem, I didn't know there would be a beautiful woman like you in the first place."
"You kill her for me." The woman yelled, pointing to one of the women with the most decent
look.
"Ahem, it's okay if you don't kill her. You can just treat her like a servant."
"You killed my husband and you can't do anything about your own wife?
That's it, and you want me to be your wife?"
A hint of a moan escaped the man's tightly closed lips as his body leapt upwards
cutting down the fingered woman. Before he could catch his breath, "This woman.
Kill this woman again too!"
The man hesitated for a moment, but immediately strutted over to the woman and swung
up his machete and slashed down on the woman's neck. Before the bone-rolling
head could stop, the magnetic and penetrating
beautiful voice rang out again as the woman's fingers moved, "Kill the woman
this time!"
The fingered woman covered her face with her hands and wailed. Right at that
moment, the man's greatsword swept over her head cutting a white line in the air.
With a huff, the remaining women fled in all directions.
"I won't agree if one gets away. There's one hiding in the bushes over there!
And another, fleeing to the left!"
The man ran wildly through the mountain wilderness, swinging his bloody machete. A woman
was slow to escape and fell limp to the ground. It was the worst-looking one, a
cripple. The man returned back
after killing all the other fleeing women, and he was about to swing his greatsword as if nothing had happened?
"Never mind, this woman, use her as a maid."
"And by the way, let's kill it too."
"Fool, I said don't kill."
"Oh really? Really?"
The man dropped the bloody machete in his hand and sat on his butt.
All of a sudden, a wave of weariness came over him, and his butt seemed to take root on the ground.
The silence that surrounded them was eerie. The man
winced and looked back, only to see the woman standing there in a bored, yet flamboyant
style. At once, the man felt as if he had woken up
from a nightmare. Eyes, soul were attracted by the beauty of this woman over
and could not move a muscle. But the man's heart was troubled. Exactly
what kind of uneasiness and why he felt uneasy, the man did not know.
It was a good thing that the woman's heavenly beauty sucked away his soul, so he was
able to not care about the apprehension within his heart at this time.
What, so similar? He pondered in his heart. The scene in front of him seemed
like he had seen it at some point. Oh yes, that was it. At the thought,
he startled himself.
Under a forest of blooming cherry blossoms! It was
too similar to passing under a forest of cherry blossoms. He didn't know exactly what or how, but there was a resemblance. He could only understand
this much, but even if he didn't, it didn't matter.
Finally, the long winter in the mountains passed, except for the mountaintops, valleys, trees
under the shade of the still remaining snow, the bright sunshine in the sky has already heralded the fresh
flowers blooming spring is coming.
This year, if the cherry blossoms bloom? He speculated. In fact, it didn't feel scary when he was just
near the flowers, so he could walk straight
under them. Just walking would feel wrong. There are cherry blossoms dangling from the front, back, left and
right, and the deeper you go into the forest, the more
eerie it becomes. This year, I'm going to walk into a forest of blooming cherry blossoms
and stand still, no, just sit on my butt. By the way, when the time comes
would you like to take this woman with you. Thinking of this, the man could not
resist taking his eyes to glance at the woman. Immediately, however, the drums were
beating inside, so he panicked and averted his eyes again. For some reason,
the man's mind was seared with the idea that he must not let
the woman know what he was thinking.
Women are very capricious. No matter how hard he tries to make a delicious
delicious meal for her, she is bound to say something. The men hunted all over the mountains, catching
birds, deer, and wild boars and bears. The crippled woman spent her days in the forest searching for
tender leaves and digging for roots. But the woman was never satisfied.
"Is that all you give me to eat every day?"
"This has been the best meal. It will be
10 days before we get a meal like this before you come."
"You are a rough man of the mountains, so of course you feel satisfied. My throat
eyes can't swallow such things. In the mountains so cold, the only thing you hear in the long nights
is the hooting of owls. Even if only the food can be compared
to the capital, it is just. Do you know what kind of
wind blows in the capital? You have separated me from the winds of the capital, and you don't even
know how sad I am. You have taken the winds of the capital away from me, and all you have given me
is the cawing of crows and owls. Are you not
shameful and heartless?"
The man could hardly understand the woman's complaint. Because he didn't know
what kind of wind the capital was, he couldn't even imagine
it. In the present life, the man has felt very satisfied, really can not pick
any faults, only to see the woman complaining when the face full of sadness he will
feel confused. Not knowing how to deal with it and not being able to find a way to deal with it
is making him fidget and hurt his head.
How many passersby from the capital had been killed previously, the man could not
remember. For him, the people in the capital were rich, used flashy
expensive things, and were ingrates. If there was nothing decent
in the snatched bag, the man would curse disdainfully, "This peasant!"
"Dirtbag!" In short, that was all he knew of the capital, it was where
people with flashy items stayed, and all he had to do was snatch those
flashy items away from him, that was all he could think about. As for what bearing the capital city
was over, he didn't even bother to think about it.
Women cared a lot about combs and hairpins and lipstick. If a man touched her clothes even lightly with a muddy hand or with the blood of an animal, she would bellow as if her clothes were her life and it was her duty to protect them, and she always
kept herself and her home clean and tidy. As for clothes, a woman is always
not satisfied with a single kimono and an obi, she has to wear several kimonos layer by layer
wearing several obi, tying several obi, and tying the obi into a strange
shape, unnecessarily drooping down, and then in the kimono don't have all kinds of
various kinds of trinkets which is only complete a shape. The man was dazzled, and then sighing and smacking. He was amazed and awed. He was so immersed in the beauty
that there was no room for doubt. A seemingly incomplete
and meaningless piece of broken pieces through the hands of the woman after the concentration of a
together, can become a beautiful whole, and if disassembled
open, they are some meaningless pieces of broken pieces, which is like a table
performs wonderful magic, the man admired to the ground.
The woman ordered the man to cut wood from the mountains and make something for her.
But what these things actually do, the man in the process of making no
Faqiang understand, in fact, but it is Hu beds and chairs. The so-called Hu bed,
that is, the ordinary chair, the weather is clear days, the woman will ask the man
to move it to the outside of the house, into the sun to get the sun, or the bottom of the shade of the tree
under the woman sat on it to rest her eyes. When she was in the house, she leaned back
in a circle chair and meditated. All this, in the eyes of the man, is so alien
and bewitching that it mesmerizes him. Magic was performed in reality, and as much as
he himself was an assistant in the magic show, he
always marveled at the end of the trick.
Every morning, the crippled woman combed the eighth woman's long black
hair, while the man called in clear spring water from a distant valley.
The man reveled in this sweet toil, and it had become the man's wish to be able to contribute to this strange
wonderful magic. Another
wish was that the man wanted to brush the woman's dark, oily
hair himself. "Your hands, yuck!" The woman always growled angrily and pushed the man's
hands away, while the man shyly retracted his hands like a child, and watched straight on as the oiled black hair shone and coiled up until the beautiful
face was revealed. Thus a beautiful picture was outlined and completed
. It all seemed like a dream from beginning to end.
"This kind of thing?" The man played with the patterned comb
and the ornamental pin in his hand. Though these things had seemed to him in the past to be
meaningless and worthless, and though even now he still could not
understand the harmony and connection between things and the
meaning of adornment, he realized the magic that they held. Magic is the life of
objects. There is life in objects.
"Don't touch! Why do you touch every day?"
"It's amazing!"
"What's so amazing?"
"I don't know why."
The man was a little coy. He was surprised, but he wasn't sure of the object of his
surprise.
Gradually, the man developed a fear of the capital. The fear was not
a fear, but a shame and uneasiness of the unknown, just like the shame and uneasiness of a learned
man of the unknown
like. Whenever a woman mentions the word "capital", a man's heart trembles.
But since the man had never been afraid of what he saw, he was not used to fear, nor shame. Thus, he began to harbor hostility towards the
Kingdom.
Attacking hundreds of passersby from the capital, none of them
were a match for himself. The thought made him complacent. Looking back
on the past again, he felt even less uneasy about others betraying and harming him.
Realizing this, his life was filled with joy and pride again. The woman
had her beauty, and he had his strength. Though there were a few struggles against the boar
it wasn't scary. His nerves loosened.
"Are there people in town with tusks?"
"There are warriors with bows and arrows on their backs yeah."
"Haha. If I had a bow and arrows, I could shoot the little sparrows
across the canyon. There's no one in the capital with skin so thick that they can't even cut a sword, is there?"
"There are samurai in armor."
"Can armor break my sword?"
"Of course it can."
"I've hunted bears and boars."
"If you are truly a strong man, take me to the capital
city and use your power to get all the goodies I want in the capital
piled up in front of me to make me happy for once. That way, you will be considered a truly
strong man."
"No problem."
The man decided to go to the capital. He planned to get
all the combs, hairpins, kimonos, and lipsticks in the capital in less than 3 days and 3 nights of
work and pile them up in front of the woman. He felt that there was nothing to worry about, the only thing that he could not worry about was another
thing that had absolutely nothing to do with the capital.
That is, the cherry blossom forest.
In two or three days, the cherry blossoms in the forest will be in full bloom. He had resolved
that this year, he must sit motionless and still
quietly in the cherry blossomed forest. He had crept into the forest alone to scrutinize
the buds. He told the anxious woman that he would leave in three days.
"What in particular do you have to prepare!?" The woman frowned,
"Don't make me anxious, the capital city could be calling me."
"I have an appointment."
"You! Who do you have an appointment with in these deep woods?"
"Not with anyone. But, I just have an appointment."
"That's rare. Not with whom, then what is the pact?"
Men don't lie.
"The cherry blossoms are going to bloom."
"Is there not an appointment with the cherry blossoms?"
"The cherry blossoms are about to bloom and I want to see them before I leave."
"Why?"
"I have to see the cherry blossom forest."
"I asked why you must visit it?"
"Just because the flowers are going to bloom."
"Because the flowers are going to bloom, why?"
"Because there's a cold, icy wind everywhere under the flowers."
"Under the flowers?"
"Standing under the flowers, you can't see as far as the eye can see."
"Under the flowers?"
The woman couldn't figure it out and got irritated.
"Then take me under the flowers too."
"That, no." The man balked.
"So, it still has to be alone." The woman laughed bitterly.
For the first time, the man saw a bitter smile. Before, he had never known
this kind of unkind smile. Of course, he didn't interpret it as "un
wistful", but rather as something that couldn't be cut off with a knife or anything
because the woman's bitter smile was seared into his brain.
When he thought about it, it felt like a sharp blade scraping his head,
and it was a feeling he couldn't swing away.
The third day arrived.
He set out alone and secretly. At a glance, there were sheng everywhere
The above is the first half, the article is large, can not paste all, the follow-up you can go to /f?kz=666183510 to see. Start with the 5th picture.