If a person dies happily, if he thinks that death is a permanent liberation, the world should not sigh for him, because a happy death is better than the deepest pain in the soul, and one day, he is absent-minded about life. - "Snow Country"
Like Lao She and Hemingway, who was born in the same year as him, Yasunari Kawabata finally chose to commit suicide.
The cause of his death is still a mystery. 50 years ago today, on April 16, 1972, Yasunari Kawabata committed suicide without leaving a word and carrying a gas pipe in his mouth. That night, the begonia flowers in full bloom must have been a sleepless night.
Yasunari Kawabata is no stranger to Chinese readers, and his essays have been selected into textbooks at the stage of compulsory education. Works such as "Snow Country", "The Dancing Girl of Izu", and "Ancient Capital" are at least well known by many people.
Yasunari Kawabata is strange to us, probably because he belongs to the Neo-Sensation writers, with obvious metaphors and stream-of-consciousness tendencies, and even the novels he writes "have no storyline". Like Yukio Mishima, he uses a lot of synaesthesia, which for many readers is even difficult to read.
But whenever you read "At four o'clock in the morning, I see the begonia flowers are not sleeping" and "you even have beautiful colors on your fingertips", those readers will feel that Yasunari Kawabata expresses some of his feelings most accurately.
This is the magic of Yasunari Kawabata, who, in a moment, sees through you with lonely eyes.
Yasunari Kawabata was surrounded by reporters after receiving the notice of the Nobel Prize in Literature
"Celebrities of funerals"
Yasunari Kawabata's loneliness may be because he was very close to death since he was a child - he lost his father at the age of two, his mother at the age of three, his grandmother died unexpectedly when he was seven, his sister left him when he was 10 years old, and when he was 16, the last close relative finally died - "Once my grandfather died, I had no relatives at the age of 16, no home." ”
During those years, Yasunari Kawabata frequently appeared at various funerals, and his cousin joked that he was a "funeral celebrity" Later, Kawabata said in "Celebrities Attending Funerals": "During the summer vacation of the 22-year-old, I attended three funerals in less than 30 days. ”
Such an experience must have a great impact on a person, and since then, Yasunari Kawabata has thought deeply about the beauty and meaning of death and the relationship between life and death, and for this reason, later generations always say that the identity of an orphan makes Yasunari Kawabata's words soaked with sorrow. However, when we look back on the past in "Celebrities Attending Funerals", we can see that he actually faced the loneliness of childhood and the departure of relatives with a grateful attitude.
In his pen, the sadness under the fence became the warmth of "no matter where I went, they welcomed me, not saying 'you are coming', but saying 'you are back'". When it comes to the state of mind at the funeral, Kawabata Yasunari is not all sad, "I thought in my heart: I am the bereaved lord, before leaving the funeral, such a gaffe, first, I am sorry for everyone, and second, I will cause some disturbances." ”
In fact, this is the mentality of traditional Japanese people. Furthermore, Yasunari Kawabata's mourning, loneliness, and nothingness all come from traditional Japanese aesthetics.
In his speech to the Nobel Prize in Literature, he was also said to have "expressed the essence of the Japanese psyche." Even he himself said: "I am strongly conscious of being a Japanese writer, hoping to inherit the tradition of Japanese beauty, and there is nothing but this self-realization and hope..." "The rest of my life is not a matter of myself, but an expression of the Japanese tradition of beauty."
"Chiyo Love"
It is undeniable that Yasunari Kawabata's writing temperament is indeed melancholy. As he said in "The Dancing Girl of Izu": "I, a twenty-year-old man, have repeatedly and seriously reflected on the strange temper I have developed due to the root nature of the orphan, and it is precisely because I cannot stand the suffocating sense of melancholy that I have embarked on the journey of Izu." ”
Speaking of Izu, it is inevitable to talk about yasunari Kawabata's four "Chiyo loves", which is also the main source and imagery of his works.
Perhaps deliberately arranged by fate, the four women met in Yasunari Kawabata's love are all called Chiyo.
The first one is called Chiyo Yamamoto. Chiyo Yamamoto's father, Matsu yamamoto, was a creditor to Yasunari Kawabata's grandfather, but his grandfather died before he could pay it back. Yamamoto Matsu ran to the school to collect debts from Yasunari Kawabata, which was criticized by the villagers, so before he died, he instructed his daughter Chiyo Yamamoto to treat Yasunari Kawabata kindly. The subsequent kindness made Yasunari Kawabata have feelings for Chiyo, but after discovering that the other party did not have this intention, Yasunari Kawabata wrote his thoughts about her into his debut novel "Chiyo".
The second Chiyo Kawabata met was a dancer he met while traveling to Izu before entering the university. He fell in love with Chiyo at first sight and accompanied him all the way. After separation, the two had a brief correspondence, but eventually lost contact. Nine years later, Yasunari Kawabata used this experience as a blueprint for his famous work "The Dancing Girl of Izu".
The third Chiyo was a waitress whom Yasunari Kawabata had bought at a tavern during his college years, but when he learned that the other party already had a fiancé, he had to give up.
The last Chiyo is Yasunari Kawabata's true first love, and the one that makes him most unforgettable. In 1920, Yasunari Kawabata met and fell in love with the fourth Chiyo, Ito Chiyo, and even got engaged. But as he says in The Ancient Capital, "Maybe luck is short-lived, but loneliness is long-lasting." The following year, the relationship ended in a breakup.
"You've worked hard"
Like love, beautiful things are fragile and perishable. On April 16, 1972, four years after winning the Nobel Prize in Literature, Yasunari Kawabata committed suicide with a gas pipe in his mouth. It is said that his last words before his death were addressed to the ambulance driver, "... The road is so crowded, hard for you. It's like when he was a child, he felt "sorry" for the people who came to the funeral of his loved ones.
Many people speculate about what Kawabata Yasushi became and what choice he chose to commit suicide, which is related to the death of his friend Yukio Mishima. In 1970, Yukio Mishima committed suicide by cutting off his abdomen, and many writers rushed to the scene, but only Yasunari Kawabata was allowed to enter. He is said to have told his students: "I should have had my head cut off." ”
Writer Yasunari Kawabata (right) receives Yukio Mishima at his home in Kamakura, near Tokyo, Japan, on October 18, 1968
These are only the speculations of later generations, and Yasunari Kawabata did not leave a suicide note. He said as early as 1962: "Suicide without a suicide note is the best." A wordless death is an infinite life. Perhaps, the stubborn old man didn't seem to want us to know why—"Death is the ultimate beauty, and death is tantamount to rejecting all understanding." He said so.
In the 50 years since Yasunari Kawabata left, his influence has never dissipated. Whether it is Haruki Murakami or Junichi Watanabe, the deformities and defects that are vaguely visible in the works are all re-initiation of material sorrow, and they cannot avoid Yasunari Kawabata and his troubled "Snow Country".
Image | CFP, Qianjiang Evening News
Editor-in-charge | Lin Li loves