Page:Tayama Katai and His Novel Entitled Futon (Reece).pdf/199

 into a ditch and hurt his knee-caps, and was abused by factory workers who said, "Drunkard! Walk steadily!" Suddenly regaining his consciousness, he turned to the right at the top of the slope and entered the precincts of the Hachiman Shrine in Ichigatani. No one was in the desolate compound. A big zelkova tree and some pine trees overlapped each other. In the left-hand corner of the compound, there was a large and dense coral tree. All-night lamps, placed here and there, began slowly to burn. As Tokio felt difficulty in breathing, he suddenly hid himself under the coral tree, lying down on the ground by its roots. His excited mental condition, the pleasant sensations of uncontrollable passion and sadness, were developed to their fullest limits; he was on the one hand carried away by the anxiety of keen jealousy and on the other hand, he calmly observed his own condition.

Of course he did not have such an ardent passion as he had experienced in his first love affair. He was able to reflect, at this time, on himself rather than resigning himself to fate. His mental condition had a kind of strangeness, tied firmly with twisted threads of passion of ardent subjectivity and criticism of cold objectivity.

Sad, very sad. This sadness was not the type experienced by youth, nor merely, sadness of love between men and women, but it was the profound sadness which lay hidden in the depths of human life. The flow of running waters, the falling of blooming flowers--when one realized the irresistible power that lurked at. the innermost depth of nature, nothing was so ephemeral as human beings.

Tears flowed down his unshaven face.