If the appearance of life is the "beginning", the withering of life is not necessarily the "end", the Egyptian Book of the Dead left a prayer similar to "death is another begining" more than 4,000 years ago, and from this line of thinking, "Galactic Railway Night" regards somewhere in the universe as the final destination, and it seems that there is nothing wrong with it.
The universe is silent, and death is silent; (assuming) that the universe has a beginning and an end, then death is also "beginning and end"; the Milky Way above us, like the tracks of a galactic train, "sends" the soul from this shore to the other shore.
In "Night of the Galactic Railway", Kobenella drowned, and in the original book, "The river downstream is quite wide, reflecting the huge Milky Way, as if the sky is directly descending." "Water( the Milky Way, the waterway in heaven) has been made almost explicit as a "passageway" connecting life and death.
Giovanni walked into the crowd, only to see Campanella's father, dressed in black, standing tall among the students and townspeople, staring dead at the watch in his right hand.
Everyone stared at the river, and everyone did not say a word.
Giovanni's heart was pounding, and his legs couldn't stop fighting. The calcium carbide lamp used to catch fish shuttles back and forth, and the black river water is shining and rippled, as if it were running.
The river downstream is quite wide, reflecting the huge Milky Way, as if the sky were falling directly.
Giovanni couldn't help but feel that Campanella wouldn't be anywhere but on the edge of the Galaxy.
But others seemed to be fantasizing that Campanella would emerge from the waves while saying, "I've swum so far," or that Campanella had swum to an unknown sandbar somewhere and was standing there waiting to pick him up.
"This Flower Pavilion Strange Tam"
The "milky way" here is similar to the role of the Styx in Buddhism and the Styx in Greek mythology – it is worth mentioning that in Greek mythology, the boatman responsible for crossing the dead across the Styx is called "Charon" (Χ ρων) and the half-human Macharong (Χε ρων) is very similar in name.
The role here is "transit", it is said that after death, the soul can not immediately accept to leave the body, so there will be a sense of "trance", which is the so-called "adaptation (period)", and the undertaking of this "adaptation (period)" is sometimes a long road, such as the mythical road to the underworld; sometimes a long river (track), such as the "Galactic Train" in "Night of the Galactic Railway"; sometimes a station that allows the soul to rest temporarily, such as "This Flower Pavilion" in the animation "This Flower Pavilion".
I personally feel that the meaning of "water" for the author is very unusual, in the "Galactic Railway Night", the explicit mention of "death" is the only one except [Kobenella], that is, the same drowning teacher and student three people (an adult and a pair of brothers and sisters), they called themselves "shipwrecked" ship, it is the history of the famous "Titanic" - Titanic sank on April 14, 1912, is the writer's era.
Derivatively speaking, Dazaiji, who was a contemporary of Kenji Miyazawa, chose to die by throwing himself into the water - you know, Dazaiji has tried to find death 5 times before . Other of the more famous Japanese writers who committed suicide, such as Ryunosuke Wasagawa, died of sleeping pills, Yukio Mishima died of caesarean section, and Yasunari Kawabata died of gas poisoning.
If you insist on pulling some "Zen", it is nothing more than dying in the water, a bit back to the meaning of the mother body (amniotic fluid), where the flesh is born, the flesh dies from where it is, completing a cycle of life.
In "Galactic Railway Night", the disappearance of life must be solemn, but the process of disappearance is "brisk", and the "sadness" at the end of the whole story is not so much belonging to [Jobney] or to the author's sad and compassionate emotions, but rather belonging to the reader and the audience.
When [Joe Benny] and [Corbenella] got on the train, the author's description already implied [Corbenella's] death.
(Note: Reader Culture Edition 2018-06)
Giovanni saw a tall boy in the front seat next to him, in a wet black shirt, looking out the window.
The boy's shoulders looked so familiar, and the more Giovanni thought about it, the more he wondered who was sitting there?
When he also wanted to stick his head out of the window to look out, the boy just retracted his head and looked back.
It turned out to be Campanella!
Giovanni was about to ask, "Have you been in the car for a long time?" ”
Camparila preemptively said: "Unfortunately, although everyone chased desperately, they still did not catch this train." Chanel was at the forefront, still unable to catch up. ”
In particular, the last sentence is "Although everyone is desperately chasing, they still did not catch this train." Chanel is at the forefront and still can't catch up", only at the end of the story do we know that the expression of this sentence in this world is-
After Chanel accidentally fell into the water, he was the one closest to death (train); everyone chased desperately, referring to everyone on the boat trying to search for the drowned; why did Chanelli run in front of the train, but it was [Kobenella] who got on the train last? Because [Kobenella] saved Chanelius, he fell into the water and never came up again.
On the journey of Galactic Railway Night, leaving aside those dreamy scenes, what is left?
It's loneliness.
Notice that it is loneliness, not loneliness. It is "be the one" in the objective sense.
On the train, [Joe Benny] is the only one who is alive, and the ticket he has is unique - "be the one"; in life, [Joe Benny] has a good friend named "Kobenella", but the two are actually one - "be the one".
I know that there is an article on "Commentary: The Mystery of Approaching the End" What is true happiness? (Note: The article is a translation of a Japanese study of the contents of the "Galactic Railway Night") mentions that -
[Corbanella] takes its name from the Italian Renaissance utopian socialist, philosopher, and writer Tommas Campanella (1568-1639), and his original name was Giovanni (Giobanni) Dominigo Campanella.
Thomas Campanella
Throughout his life, Thomas Campanella was loyal to himself and held his faith against the church, so he was repeatedly persecuted by the church and spent most of his life in prison. Thomas Campanella's life experiences and thoughts, such as the concept of life and death that "death is only the transformation from one substance to another", and the far-reaching utopian communist work Sun City had a very profound impact on Kenji Miyazawa as a student.
It can be said that in [Joe Benny] and [Kobenella], there is the shadow of Thomas Campanella (thoughts) and the shadow of Kenji Miyazawa (thoughts, experiences).
[Loneliness] is not only the core of "Galactic Railway Night", but also the life marker of Kenji Miyazawa and Thomas Campanella, and in fact, it is also the annotation of all of us.
Life is a train to death, and during the journey of life, we will meet all kinds of passers-by, such as the fossil digging scholar, bird catcher, train conductor, teacher and brother and sister in "Galactic Railway Night", the lampstand keeper, but in the end, only [Jobney] is left.
Even if the life I have experienced is brilliant and colorful, I am still alone in the end.