Pathway to Japanese Literature
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Around the PondAuthor: Makino Shinichi
| Original Title | 池のまはり |
|---|---|
| Author | 牧野 信一 |
| Genre | Modern Short Fiction |
| Author Type | Male Author |
| Summary | In a quiet household simmering with unspoken tensions, a young man chafes under his father’s stern disapproval, seeking solace in his grandmother’s warmth and the restless energy of the family’s chickens. His rebellion is muted—a refusal to dine with the family, brooding silences, and fleeting fantasies of escape—but his longing for freedom sharpens when he’s forbidden from meeting Chiyoko, a charming apprentice geisha. The family’s dysfunctional dynamics crystallize around Crooked Beak, a deformed hen relentlessly tormented by children and even the patriarch, whose erratic care veers between cruelty and odd tenderness. As the hen becomes a mirror for the household’s hidden frustrations, generational clashes and stifled desires surface: a father’s drunken hypocrisy, a grandmother’s weary pragmatism, and a sister’s performative sympathy. When Crooked Beak’s plight reaches its grim conclusion, the aftermath leaves unresolved questions about guilt and compassion. Through delicate observations of mundane rituals and charged silences, the story paints a portrait of confinement—both literal and emotional—where even the smallest creatures bear the weight of human folly. |
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