So I Read That Short Story Last Night
So I'm reading a collection of short stories by Dazai Osamu in Japanese. It's taking me ages, but last night, I came across a story that had me giggling at first before getting confused...
I tried looking the title up in a dictionary, but I didn't really understand it. Anyway.
The first person narrator starts with "I HATE THIS PERSON OMG CAN HE PLEASE JUST GO AND DIE I HATE HIM/HER IF YOU SEE HIM/HER KILL HIM/HER PLZKTHX" and I'm like, lol, this is going to be fun.
Then, suddenly, the narrator is dropping Western-sounding names marked with a star (*), so I go look them up at the end of the book. Turns out he/she's referring to some of the 12 apostles. Okay, I think. Well.
Then, suddenly, he/she's all like "oh, he/she's so beautiful, I love him/her so much, if he/she were to die, I'd surely die with him/her, nobody loves him/her more than I, I don't believe in God, I don't believe in heaven, I just believe in him" and so on, and I'm like, yay? I thought you hated him/her?
And then. Suddenly, I think, WAIT THERE JUST A SECOND, I KNOW THAT SCENE. Like, a woman enters the room and anoints the feet of the person the narrator hates/loves, and the narrator is like WHAT THE F*** ARE YOU DOING, YOU COULD HAVE SOLD THE OINTMENT AND GIVEN THE MONEY TO THE POOR, and guess what? I paid attention during RE. And recognised the scene, the first person narrator as Judas and That Person as Jesus.
So I sit in my bed and just stare at my blanket, thinking, "so Dazai Osamu wrote Bible slash fic? Or at least Judas -> Jesus?"
The story is heart-breaking. Judas goes back to hating Jesus, back to loving him, back to hating him, selling him, you know how it goes.
He goes crazy in the end.
The end.
I read that story in one go and... was shocked at how much I understood (which is probably thanks to my knowledge of the story, but still). Without consulting a dictionary.
And now people are going to tell me that I totally misinterpreted Judas' thoughts and that his declaration of love was just an expression of his completely platonic adoration, I guess. Maybe. But he repeated "he's so beautiful" at least a dozen times...
I tried looking the title up in a dictionary, but I didn't really understand it. Anyway.
The first person narrator starts with "I HATE THIS PERSON OMG CAN HE PLEASE JUST GO AND DIE I HATE HIM/HER IF YOU SEE HIM/HER KILL HIM/HER PLZKTHX" and I'm like, lol, this is going to be fun.
Then, suddenly, the narrator is dropping Western-sounding names marked with a star (*), so I go look them up at the end of the book. Turns out he/she's referring to some of the 12 apostles. Okay, I think. Well.
Then, suddenly, he/she's all like "oh, he/she's so beautiful, I love him/her so much, if he/she were to die, I'd surely die with him/her, nobody loves him/her more than I, I don't believe in God, I don't believe in heaven, I just believe in him" and so on, and I'm like, yay? I thought you hated him/her?
And then. Suddenly, I think, WAIT THERE JUST A SECOND, I KNOW THAT SCENE. Like, a woman enters the room and anoints the feet of the person the narrator hates/loves, and the narrator is like WHAT THE F*** ARE YOU DOING, YOU COULD HAVE SOLD THE OINTMENT AND GIVEN THE MONEY TO THE POOR, and guess what? I paid attention during RE. And recognised the scene, the first person narrator as Judas and That Person as Jesus.
So I sit in my bed and just stare at my blanket, thinking, "so Dazai Osamu wrote Bible slash fic? Or at least Judas -> Jesus?"
The story is heart-breaking. Judas goes back to hating Jesus, back to loving him, back to hating him, selling him, you know how it goes.
He goes crazy in the end.
The end.
I read that story in one go and... was shocked at how much I understood (which is probably thanks to my knowledge of the story, but still). Without consulting a dictionary.
And now people are going to tell me that I totally misinterpreted Judas' thoughts and that his declaration of love was just an expression of his completely platonic adoration, I guess. Maybe. But he repeated "he's so beautiful" at least a dozen times...