Pathway to Japanese Literature
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By the PoolAuthor: Nakajima Atsushi
| Original Title | プウルの傍で |
|---|---|
| Author | 中島 敦 |
| Genre | Modern Short Fiction |
| Author Type | Male Author |
| Summary | Sōzō returns to his former junior high school in Keijō after eight years abroad, drawn to the grounds where rugby players now drill like black-and-yellow bees. The pool, once a leek field from his student days, stirs fragmented memories—gun oil, military drills, and adolescent restlessness. Now a gaunt man ashamed of his frail body, he swims in lukewarm water as dusk bleeds into the sky, haunted by echoes of Manchuria: a Russian boy’s gray eyes, a fleeting encounter with a girl in red, and station scenes blurring past and present. \nNostalgia intertwines with bitterness. Flashbacks reveal a youth marked by alienation—resentment toward a distant father, stepmothers he despised, and a self-loathing fixation on his own ugliness. Schoolboy rebellions—smoking, stolen erotica, clandestine trips to brothels—clash with tender moments: a black cat’s purr, harmonica melodies under crimson skies. Yet every memory carries thorns: a violent paternal clash, humiliating beatings by seniors, and a haunting night with a Korean girl whose innocence mirrors his own fractured desires. \nAs evening deepens, Sōzō floats, suspended between travel fatigue and unresolved longing. The pool’s chill sharpens his awareness of time’s passage—youth’s vibrant chaos fading into middle-aged fragility, where envy of athletes’ vigor mirrors old wounds of inadequacy. Keijō’s streets, once alive with rebellion and neon, now whisper of ephemeral beauty and irreversible change. |
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