Snow country

Shimamura is a native of Tokyo, a well-off freelancer, with a wife and children, learning western dance. Island village, which lives a carefree life, often has an illusion that many things are in vain. However, in his boring life, there is one thing that he shows very actively, that is, he keeps going to the snow country by car to meet his lover foal.

The first time two people met was in early spring. At that time, Shimamura came to Snow Country to climb mountains. In the hot spring bath, he sent for a geisha. Soon, a girl who can play the lyre came. This is a foal. Komako 19 years old, looks handsome, and the whole person looks very clean. Shimamura even thinks his toes are clean. The hem of geisha's clothes is generally laid on the ground, which looks good, but it is not convenient to move. At that time, the hem of Komako's clothes had not been laid on the ground, which showed that she was not a real geisha at that time.

Foal is very beautiful. She can master men's psychology, but she is very simple and sometimes reveals the frankness of fireworks women. This complex combination attracted Shimamura. Desert island village can't help but feel attached to foal and chat with her. Komako told her life experience. She was born in poverty and was sold to Tokyo as a hostess. Soon, a benefactor saved her, and Komako intended to learn her craft and make a living as a dancer. However, the benefactor died soon, and the foal who lost his financial resources could only return to his hometown and make a living by being occasionally called to a banquet.

The next day, Komako came to visit Shimamura. Shimamura said that he wanted to be a clean friend with her, so he just chatted without courtship, so that he could get along with her for a longer time and would not be disappointed and bored soon. These words are actually Shimamura playing with Komako. Shimamura's real idea is that it's best to find a truly happy woman when looking for a woman, so that she won't feel guilty when she finishes. To put it bluntly, Shimamura doesn't want to get himself into trouble. However, Komako believed these words, which made Shimamura, who was naturally wild, feel very interesting.

It was a rainy night that night, and the drunken pony at the banquet broke into the room of Shimamura again. Komako pointedly shouted Shimamura's name and fell into Shimamura's arms, saying that he liked him. Shimamura wanted to make out with Koko, but Koko refused him. Two people pulled it, and nothing happened in the end. Before dawn, foal combed her hair and sneaked away before the people in the inn got up. Shimamura promised to visit her again and returned to Tokyo on the same day.

The first time I went to Snow Country, Shimamura and Komako attracted each other. The original life of Shimamura seemed calm and stagnant, but the vitality and freshness of Komako stirred his lonely and boring mind, and he felt very fresh. At the same time, Komako is young and beautiful, and her youth aroused Shimamura's lust and made him want to stop. In short, Shimamura was attracted by the light and heat of the pony. Why does Komako like Shimamura? There are many reasons. Shimamura didn't have sex when he first met himself, and Komako thought this person was unusual. Island village has the breath of a big city, and the city is the place where Komako tried but couldn't stay. Therefore, Komako projected her yearning for big cities to Shimamura. Shimamura can boast about dance, literature, drama and movies, and seems to be very knowledgeable. Komako found a bosom friend in loneliness. So, unconsciously, foal's feelings for Shimamura are getting deeper and deeper.

After Shimamura left, Koko kept silently counting the days when two people separated in his diary, although he didn't really believe his promise. Half a year later, Shimamura, who was obsessed with foal, finally went to Snow Country by bus. This is a fragment written at the beginning of this book.

On this train, Shimamura saw a very beautiful girl, which led to the core image of this book: the mirror. There is a short stop before the train arrives at the station. Shimamura is enjoying the vast snow scene outside the window. A girl stood up from the opposite seat, opened the glass window and let a cold air in. The girl said to the stationmaster. Her voice is beautiful with a feeling of sadness. Her loud voice echoed for a long time in the snowy night, which attracted the attention of Shimamura.

Boring Shimamura began to observe the girl. He found that the girl was accompanying a seriously ill person and taking care of him like a loving mother. Shimamura couldn't understand the relationship between the two at the moment. After a few hours, it was dark, the lights in the carriage were on, and the windows were covered with water vapor. Shimamura unconsciously polished the glass, and the glass window turned into a mirror, from which Shimamura could see girls and patients. There are two views in the mirror, followed by Shan Ye in the fading twilight outside the window, and the girl's face reflected in the front mirror. The two layers of scenery are real and virtual, shaking like overlapping shadows in the movie, blending into one, depicting a very unreal world. When the light of Shan Ye shone on the girl's face, the indescribable beauty made Shimamura's heart tremble. Shimamura gradually forgot the existence of the mirror, only felt that the girl was floating in the passing scenery, and he was deeply attracted by this magical power.

"Mirror" is the most important metaphor and image in Snow Country, which appears in almost every key node. Snow country was originally serialized in the form of short stories. At that time, the titles were called Twilight Mirror and Mirror of the Day. After the serialization was completed, it was revised to merge unrelated chapters into a book. In China culture, there is an image of "flower in the mirror", which is a metaphor for something beautiful but unattainable. The mirror of Snow Country also has this meaning. Many things it reflects, such as girls, such as love, are beautiful but unreal and not lasting.

Half an hour later, the girl, the patient and Shimamura got off the bus together, and Shimamura checked into the hot spring inn. A slim girl is waiting for him. She is a foal. After 199 days, Shimamura returned here with flying snow, but Koko failed to resist Shimamura's enthusiasm, and the two finally had a relationship and became real lovers. At the party, Komako suddenly said, "How sad!" Stay up all night. Shimamura thinks Komako is a little neurotic. In fact, Komako is so sentimental because she likes Shimamura. Komako knew for a long time that the gap between two people could not be bridged, and also recognized the saying that "you can live without being a lover". Now that I have broken the precepts, I feel that this relationship will not have a good ending, so I let out a sigh.

The next morning when Shimamura and Komako were together, Komako looked at the mirror in front of the dresser. Shimamura saw the snow outside and the rosy and beautiful face of the pony from the mirror. Although I have a real close relationship with Byakki Smoker, Shimamura still can't get rid of this feeling of "beauty and confusion". At this time, Shimamura did not have a clear understanding of his relationship with Komako.

During the day, Shimamura went out for a walk. This is a poor village with low houses and snowy days. The girl by the roadside doesn't even have socks. Shimamura met Komako and went to her house. Komako lives in her dancer's house. The room is simple, but clean. Shimamura found Komako's life extremely serious and hard. She insisted on keeping a diary, "truthfully recording, not hiding"; She practices calligraphy, reads books and takes notes; Komako still retains the first-class paulownia cabinet from Tokyo, carefully sewn with a luxurious golden spray-painted sewing box, and even the clothes to be washed are neatly folded. She said, "I still want to live a clean life as long as the environment permits." This attitude makes the wandering childe island village admire.

In addition to the pony, there is also a dancer caught in the wind and her son, China Southern Airlines. Hangman is a patient that Shimamura met on the train, and the beautiful girl who takes care of Hangman is also here. She is a leaf. The leaves live nearby. She has no job, and her relationship with Hangman is unclear. However, Shimamura thinks she is the lover of the executioner. Yezi was too busy taking care of the patients to talk to Shimamura, so Shimamura left Komako's home with loss.

Shortly after Shimamura left Komako's house, she met a blind massage girl. She told Shimamura that Hangman and Komako were actually unmarried couples. In order to earn money for male travelers to recuperate, Komako came out six months ago and really became a geisha. Shimamura was surprised. As a nihilist, Shimamura thinks it is futile for Komako to keep a diary and like the city. He also thought of the pony selling herself to make money, and the leaves took good care of men. The two girls worked so hard, but they couldn't save the patient's life. All this is in vain. He couldn't wait to see the foal, and immediately gave her a punch: "It's no use!" " "

Just as Shimamura was immersed in illusory emotions, Komako came to see him again and practiced the three-stringed piano here. Shimamura was originally able to shrug off, but after the sound of the foal's piano sounded, Shimamura was shocked. The piano was strangely beautiful, and Shimamura heard goose bumps on his cheeks, and a cold feeling penetrated his heart. He felt that he had no strength to let his soul drift and impact with the sound of the piano.

Shimamura was deeply shocked at this time. Shimamura always thought that "survival itself is a kind of futility", but now he saw Komako practicing music alone in the hinterland, without guidance, and he could only learn by his impressions, music scores and radio broadcasts in Tokyo. Even under such difficult conditions, it is not easy for her to play Creary as well as the actors on the stage. Shimamura believes that Komako takes nature as the audience, which is why her plucking is so powerful. This love for life, the pursuit of dreams, this strong will and the pursuit of self-worth make the empty island village dizzy.

Shimamura is going back to Tokyo again. The night before departure, Koko's mood was very low, and then he was crazy and fanatical, which surprised Shimamura. Komako has a straightforward desire to survive, which makes Shimamura feel fresh, but more often, he just takes part in accidental amusement with Komako out of the attraction of sensuality. Shimamura doesn't understand why Komako likes himself. He even wondered if it was because his beard was beautiful.

What Shimamura doesn't understand is that at the second parting, Koko insisted on going to the railway station to bid farewell to Shimamura, even at the expense of saying goodbye to this dying man. Komako sold herself to collect medical expenses for the dying man. Why doesn't she want to say goodbye? Shimamura certainly didn't understand the love he brought to Komako, and this faint hope overwhelmed everything else. Shimamura sat in the train and looked out, feeling that the foal was like a strange fruit, abandoned alone in the middle of a glass box blackened by soot.

When the train started, the window of the waiting room suddenly lit up, and the pony's face appeared in the light and disappeared again. The train passes through the tunnel at the county boundary. There is no snow on this side of the mountain, and the Yuan Ye is boundless outside the window. Snow country seems to be a dream that has just left. Shimamura was very sad when he saw the foal struggling for survival. However, as the train goes away, those intense emotions become distant voices, which will only increase sadness. At this time, because the car was heated, the glass window was covered with water vapor and turned into a mirror. Various images are changing endlessly on the mirror reflected by the sunset. Shimamura lost the concept of time and distance, fell into a daze and let the train carry his body in vain.

At the second party, the feelings between Shimamura and Komako became deeper and deeper, and they became more and more glued. Shimamura certainly got the body of the foal, but the foal's vitality and heroic spirit also subdued Shimamura and made him addicted.

Another autumn came, and Shimamura went to see the pony for the third time. At this time, the owner of the foal and the male traveler died, and the foal moved to a small shop to live. When we met this time, Shimamura felt that his fragile soul could not bear it because of his deep feelings. He finally decided to leave this land of beauty, sadness and dreams.

Although Shimamura takes part in accidental amusement, Komako is very serious. She and Shimamura made a wishful agreement that they would be lovers for four years. She goes to see the island village twice a day, even at three o'clock in the morning, she has to open a road from the place where no one passes in the back hill and walk up in the opaque place. One night, Komako was very drunk and came to see Shimamura, which surprised him.

Although dating back and forth between Tokyo and Snow Country, Shimamura's heart is always surrounded by a sense of nothingness. When Komako was away, Shimamura went hiking and made great efforts to climb to the top of the mountain, feeling futile; He observed insects in the hotel room, because it was futile to watch them die because of the change of seasons. Shimamura observes insects very carefully. He noticed that these insects twitched their legs and feet and struggled painfully before they died. The mat is too wide, unlike where they died. He also noticed that some moths seemed to stick to the screen window, but they were dead. Some moths look dead, but they are actually alive. This lifeless, deathless, lifeless and immortal state is just like Shimamura himself. The life of an insect can also be said to be a metaphor of his life: isn't life a beautiful but short journey, in vain, and then die?

In the inn, Shimamura saw the leaves again. Ye told Shimamura to take good care of the foal, but Shimamura was surprisingly calm. He said, "I can't do anything for her." Hearing Shimamura's refusal, Yezi left with tears. That night, because of Shimamura's joke "You are a good woman", Komako felt that Shimamura was making fun of himself and had an embarrassing fight with him. It snowed the next morning, and in silence, red leaves fell into the vortex of snowflakes. Shimamura looked at the dresser again, and saw the cold and swirling snowflakes in the mirror, like last year, floating around the pony like a white line.

Shimamura fell into an unspeakable mood. The more lonely and sad foal is, the more harsh he is on himself. He felt that he should not provoke foal and put himself in an awkward position. Shimamura has always felt that the life of love is not as long as a linen skirt, leaving no real traces. So, when Komako couldn't wait to meet him again, Shimamura secretly planned to go back to Tokyo this time and not come to the spa for the time being.

The next day, Shimamura left the village to wander alone. After half a day, he came back by bus and found nothing. Just getting off the bus, he found that the silkworm house in the village was on fire. There was a movie in the silkworm room that night, and it was crowded with people. The movie was a hit. The fire spread rapidly. Under the vast starry sky, silent fire is like a game, which makes people feel scared.

Shimamura and Komako walked to the fire together. On the way, Shimamura looked up and saw the Milky Way in the sky. The Milky Way is like a big band of light, and the light is very close, as if to embrace the boundless earth at night. The stars in the Milky Way are surprisingly beautiful and shining, and the clouds are like silver sand. Shimamura feels very small. He felt that he had drifted to the Milky Way and the ends of the earth, and he felt a very fantastic loneliness. From this time on, because Shimamura had the idea of farewell, his indifference and nothingness began to climb again, and everything around him became fantastic and unreal.

Komako bid farewell to Shimamura and invited him back to Tokyo, saying that he was going to live seriously. Shimamura felt that the Milky Way poured from behind them to the front, and the foal's face was like an old mask, printed on the Milky Way, which was very magical. Shimamura felt that the Milky Way in the past seemed to embrace the earth, and the pony became far away.

Suddenly, a woman fell from the stands on the second floor. Everyone gasped, and the pony exclaimed. Shimamura's heart was suddenly shocked. This woman is a leaf. After the leaves fell, several pieces of wood fell, hitting her face and burning, and the fire flashed on her pale face. Shimamura remembered the first time he saw Ye on the train, when the lights were printed on Ye's face. The fire made him think a lot, and the fire lit up the years he spent with foal. However, love dissipated, leaves withered, the snow country caught fire, and those beautiful days passed, and Shimamura's heart was full of unspeakable pain and sadness.

The foal rushed out of the crowd and stumbled back with leaves. According to this book, Komako "seems to hold his own sacrifice and sin." What does this sentence mean? In fact, foal and leaf have similar backgrounds, but they have chosen different life paths. For the foal, leaves are a possibility. They always remind the foal of what would happen if she didn't fall into the dust. Komako said that leaves would become a burden to him, and that's what he meant. Foal has been reluctant to mention the leaves, because she has fallen into the dust and doesn't want to think about her innocence; Ye Zi asked Shimamura to take good care of Keke, which symbolized that Keke still hoped for a good result. Holding the dead leaves, the foal is actually bidding farewell to her pure past forever.

The pony clutched at the leaves and made a crazy cry. Shimamura tried to get close to the foal, but was pushed by a group of men. When Shimamura stood firm and looked up, the Milky Way seemed to crash and pour on his heart.

This book ends here. The influx of the Milky Way into Shimamura's heart is a reflection of Shimamura's psychological activities. Shimamura was very sad when Yezi died, but he quickly sublimated from his pain. After thinking about the physical destruction of leaves, his spirit is absolutely free, so he has a feeling of great enlightenment. The Milky Way from the sky is the embodiment of this inner emptiness inspiration.

Kawabata Yasunari once said, "I am a foal", which shows that foal is the real protagonist of Snow Country, and Shimamura himself is just a mirror. Why did Kawabata Yasunari choose the perspective of a minor character to express this story? This is because, from the spectator's point of view, it can better show the most distinctive vitality and pain of the pony. But more importantly, Kawabata Yasunari's sense of powerlessness is condensed on Shimamura.