Pathway to Japanese Literature
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Red BirdAuthor: Suzuki Miekichi
| Original Title | 赤い鳥 |
|---|---|
| Author | 鈴木 三重吉 |
| Genre | Children's Literature |
| Author Type | Male Author |
| Summary | In a haze of loneliness and literary obsession, Reikichi fixates on a tragic tale from a forgotten novel: Gretchen, a woman who releases a red bird before vanishing into a doomed romance. Her story mirrors his own yearning—a painter’s muse turned spectral figure, loved only as a shadow of another. When Reikichi flees his stifling home to a desolate seaside inn, a violent encounter leaves him half-blind, confined to a hospital where shadows blur reality. Bandaged and isolated, he drifts between memories of Gretchen’s sorrow and the whispers of a mysterious neighbor—a woman whose voice echoes the novel’s melancholy heroine. As night deepens, their tentative connection sparks fragile hope, yet Reikichi’s world remains fractured: Is she a kindred spirit or another phantom of his unraveling mind? Between feverish dreams and the faint chirp of an unseen bird, boundaries dissolve—love, art, and loss intertwine in a haunting dance where every glance might be the last. |
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