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Spring's SorrowAuthor: Murō Saisei
| Original Title | はるあはれ |
|---|---|
| Author | 室生 犀星 |
| Genre | Modern Short Fiction |
| Author Type | Male Author |
| Summary | In a quiet corner of a weathered town, a solitary poet ekes out a humble existence selling verses to passersby. His clients—mostly women—offer coins and fleeting companionship, their requests tinged with pity or idle curiosity. Content in his meager routine, he finds solace in crafting poems beneath cherry blossoms that scatter like forgotten promises across stone steps. \nOne day, a spectral figure from his past emerges: a pale-faced stationery shop mistress whose bloodless beauty once haunted his verses. Coldly elegant, she offers a dangerous bargain—abandon poetry forever, and she will surrender her body completely. Her demand unravels the poet’s fragile equilibrium, forcing him to confront whether his art or her enigmatic allure holds greater power. \nTheir charged exchanges blur longing and manipulation, as she dissects his obsession with her "translucent" form—a canvas for his melancholy—while he grapples with the void a life without poetry might bring. Shadows of other women linger: rosy-cheeked patrons, a disdainful bus rider, spectral figures in locked rooms. Yet this woman’s presence eclipses them all, her motives as inscrutable as the fading petals beneath their feet. \nAs dusk deepens, their confrontation escalates—torn manuscripts, whispered intimacies, a violent tumble down ancient steps—until secrets long buried threaten to surface. The poet stands at a precipice: cling to the words that sustain him or grasp the ephemeral warmth of a woman who may vanish like spring’s last bloom. |
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