On Yasunari Kawabata's Aesthetic Consciousness from Izu's Swimmer

The road has become tortuous, and it looks like it will reach the top of Tiancheng Mountain. Just as I was thinking, the shower had covered the dense Chinese fir forest with glittering flowers and chased it from the foot of the mountain at an alarming speed.

I was twenty years old that year, wearing a college student hat, a navy coat with broken white patterns, a skirt and a schoolbag on my shoulder. This is the fourth day of my solo trip to Izu. I stayed in Xiushan Temple Hot Spring for one night, stayed in Tangdao Hot Spring for two nights, and then climbed Tiancheng Mountain wearing high-toothed clogs. Along the way, although I was fascinated by the overlapping mountains, virgin forests and deep valleys in autumn, my chest was throbbing nervously, and there was an expectation that urged me to go quickly. At this moment, the raindrops as big as beans began to hit me. I ran up the steep winding ramp. Finally came to the teahouse at the north intersection of the top of the mountain. I took a deep breath and stood at the door of the teahouse. Because my wish has been fulfilled, the artists on tour are resting there.

The dancer saw me standing there and immediately gave up her cushion and put it aside.

"Ah ..." I only answered and sat down. Because I was out of breath and a little scared when I ran up the mountain, the "thank you" came to my mouth but I didn't say it.

So I approached the dancer face to face and hurriedly took out my cigarette from my sleeve. The dancer pulled the ashtray in front of her partner's woman and put it next to me. I still didn't speak.

The dancer looks about seventeen years old. She wears a very big old bun on her head. I can't even name that hairstyle, which makes her serious oval face look small, but beautiful and harmonious. She is like a portrait of a girl in a historical novel, with extremely thick hair. Among the dancers were a woman in her forties, two young girls and a man of fifteen or sixteen, wearing a coat with the name of Changgang Hot Spring Hotel written on it.

So far, I have seen the dancers twice. The first time was on the way to Tangdao. They are going to Xiushan Temple and meet near Tang Chuan Bridge. There were three young girls, and the dancers were holding a drum. As soon as I went back to visit them, I felt a sense of travel seeping into my body and mind. Then the next night in Tangdao, they visited the hotel. I sat in the middle of the stairs and watched the dancers dancing in the corridor at the gate wholeheartedly. I figured: I was in Xiushan Temple that day, I will go to Tangdao tonight, and I will cross Tiancheng Mountain to the south tomorrow, and I will probably go to Tang Ye Hot Springs. You can catch up with them on the natural mountain road, more than 20 kilometers. I came in a hurry empty-handed, and happened to meet in a teahouse sheltered from the rain. My heart thumped.

After a while, the old woman in the teahouse led me to another room. This room is probably not used at ordinary times, and there is no paper door. Looking down, the beautiful valley is too deep to see the end. I have goose bumps on my skin, I am shaking all over, and my teeth are fighting. The old woman came in to deliver tea, and I said it was cold. She took me by the hand and took me to their own house.

"Alas, the master is soaked. Come and warm up. Come, dry your clothes. "

There is a stove in that room. As soon as the paper partition door was opened, a strong heat came out. I stood at the door, hesitating. An old man sat cross-legged by the fire, bruised and drowned like a ghost. His eyes are yellow and look rotten. He looked at me gloomily. Old letters and paper bags piled up around him, so it can be said that he was buried by these rags. I witnessed the monster in this mountain and stood there blankly. I can't imagine this is a living person.

"Let you see such a shameful human ... however, this is an old man at home, you don't have to worry. It looks ugly, but he can't move. Please be patient. "

The old woman said hello like this. Judging from what she said, the old man had a stroke for many years and was completely paralyzed. Many papers are letters from all over the world to treat stroke, as well as paper bags of stroke drugs bought from all over the world. No matter what the old man hears from the traveler who walks over the top of the mountain, or what he sees in the newspaper advertisement, he won't miss it. He inquired about the treatment of stroke all over the country and asked to sell drugs. He didn't throw away any of these letters and paper bags, but piled them around and watched them live. Over the years, these old pieces of paper piled up into mountains.

I didn't answer the old woman's words, so I bent down on the stove kang. The car on the top of the hill shook the house. I thought to myself, it's already so cold in autumn, and it's going to be snowed off soon. Why didn't the old man go down the mountain? Steam comes out of my clothes. The fire is so big that it gives me a headache. The old woman walked out of the shop and chatted with a touring female artist.

"Isn't it? The girl I brought last time looks like this and becomes a beautiful girl, and you are out! Girls grow so fast, so beautiful! "

Nearly an hour later, I heard the voice of the touring artist preparing to leave. Of course I'm not calm, I'm just too anxious to stand up. I think, although they are used to walking, it is a woman's step after all. Even after walking for a kilometer or two, I can catch up with them after running for a while, but I still feel uncomfortable sitting by the fire. However, as soon as the dancer left, my fantasy seemed to be liberated and I began to live again. I asked the old woman who sent them away, "Where are those artists staying tonight?"

"This kind of person, master, who knows where they live. Wherever guests want to keep them, they stay there. Do you have a definite place to stay tonight? "

There was a very contemptuous tone in the old woman's words, which even made me feel that if so, I would let the dancer stay in my room tonight.

The rain weakened and the peaks began to brighten. Although they stopped me and said it would clear up in ten minutes, I still couldn't sit still.

"Master, take care. It's getting cold. " I said seriously and stood up. He struggled to move his yellow eyes and nodded slightly.

"Master, master!" The old woman shouted and chased him out. "It's a pity that you spent so much money. I am really sorry. "

She held my schoolbag and refused to give it to me. I stopped her many times, but she refused, saying that she would send me. She followed me with small steps and walked a long way, repeating the same sentence all the time: "I'm really sorry I didn't treat you well." Next time you pass by, I will remember your appearance. Thank you. You must come in the future, don't forget. "

I just left a silver coin of fifty cents, but I was surprised to see her, and I felt tears in my eyes. But I want to catch up with the dancer as soon as possible. I think the old woman's faltering steps actually brought me trouble. Finally came to the tunnel at the top of the mountain.

"Thank you very much. The old man is at home alone, so go home. " As I said this, the old woman handed me the bag.

Walking into the dark tunnel, cold water drops drop by drop. Ahead, the exit to Nan Yidou showed a faint light.

two

Out of the tunnel, the mountain road winds down like lightning along the whitewashed fence set up by the cliff. Looking down from here, the scenery below looks like a model, and artists can be seen below. I caught up with them after walking less than a kilometer. But I can't slow down suddenly. I pretended to be indifferent and crossed those women.

After about 20 meters, the man walked alone. He stopped when he saw me.

"Your footsteps are really fast ... it's already sunny."

I set my mind at rest and began to walk side by side with that man. He keeps asking me questions. Several women saw the two of us talking and ran after us from behind.

The man is carrying a big wicker bag. A 40-year-old woman is holding a puppy. The older girl was carrying a bag, the other girl was carrying a small wicker bag, and each girl was carrying a large piece of luggage. Dancers carry drums and drums. This forty-year-old woman is slowly talking to me, too.

"It's a college student," the older girl whispered to the dancer. I turned around and heard the dancer smile and say, "Yes, I know. Students often come to the island. "

This group of artists are Hong Kong people who live in Bofu, Oshima. They said that when they left the island in spring, they were always on the road. The weather turned cold and they didn't prepare for the winter, so they stayed in Xia Tian for another ten days and returned to the island from Yidong Hot Spring. When I heard about Oshima, it was even more poetic. I looked at the dancer's beautiful bun again and asked about Oshima.

"Many students come to swim here," the dancer said to her partner.

"Is it summer now?" I said, turn around.

The dancer panicked and seemed to answer in a low voice: "Winter is also ..."

"Winter?"

The dancer still smiles at the woman she is with.

"Do you swim in winter?" I said it again, and the dancer blushed, but looked serious and nodded gently.

"This child, idiot." The forty-year-old woman said with a smile.

It is about 20 kilometers from Hejinchuan to Tang Ye. After crossing the top of the mountain, the colors of the mountain and the sky make people feel the scenery in the south of China. I continued to talk to that man and made out completely. After passing through small villages such as Chen Cheng and Li Ben, I can see the thatched roof of Tang Ye at the foot of the mountain. At this time, I decided to travel to the fields with them. He was very happy to hear that.

When I arrived at Tang Ye's inn, when the 40-year-old woman reluctantly said goodbye to me, he said for me, "This one said he would come with us."

"Yes, yes. Travel companions make friends all over the world. Bored people like us can also help you relieve your troubles. Then, please come in and have a rest. " She replied casually. The girls looked at me together without any surprise on their faces, and looked at me with a shy silence.

I walked up to the second floor of the inn with everyone and unloaded my luggage. Cushions and paper partitions are old and dirty. It came from downstairs. She sat in front of me, her face flushed and her hands trembled, and the tea bowl tilted down from the saucer. She didn't dare to pour the tea bowl and put it on the mat. The tea had spilled. Looking at her shame, I froze.

"Oh, what a nuisance! The child is in love. This, this ... this 40-year-old woman said, frowning, as if stunned, and threw the rag over. The dancer picked up the rag and mechanically wiped the mat.

This unexpected remark made me suddenly reflect on my original thoughts. I feel that the fantasy aroused by the old woman at the top of the mountain is suddenly broken.

At this time, the woman in her forties looked at me frequently and suddenly said, "This scholar is wearing a nice coat with dark blue and broken white patterns." So she stared at the woman next to her again and again and asked, "This is the same pattern, don't you think?" Isn't it the same pattern? Then she said to me, "I left a child at school in my hometown, and now I think of him." This patterned cloth is the same as that worn by the child. It's too bad that navy blue and white cloth have become more expensive recently. "

"What school do you go to?"

"The fifth grade of ordinary primary school."

"Oh, ordinary primary school grade five, really ..."

"Now I'm in Jia Fu school. I have lived in Oshima for many years, but my hometown is Jiafu of Jiafei. "

After an hour's rest, the man took me to another hot spring hotel. Until now, I just want to stay in the same small hotel with the artist. We got off the street, walked a long section of gravel road and slate road, and crossed the bridge by the river near the public bath. Crossing the bridge is the courtyard of the hot spring hotel. I went into the small bathroom of the hotel and the man followed me from behind. He said he was twenty-four, his wife miscarried twice, his baby died prematurely and so on. I think he is from Changgang because he is wearing a coat with the name of Changgang Hot Spring. Moreover, judging from his appearance and way of speaking, he is quite knowledgeable, so I imagined that he was probably carrying their luggage out of curiosity, or fell in love with street performers.

I have lunch immediately after taking a shower. We set off from Tangdao at eight o'clock in the morning, but it's not yet three o'clock in the afternoon.

When the man left, he looked up at me from the yard and greeted me.

"Take this to buy some persimmons to eat. Sorry, I won't go downstairs, "I said, picking up some wallets and throwing them in." He refused to take the money and was about to go out, but the paper bag remained in the yard. He turned and picked it up.

"This can't be done." As he spoke, he threw the paper bag up and landed on the thatched roof. I threw it away again. He took it and left.

It began to rain heavily at night. The images of the mountains are indistinguishable from each other and are all dyed white. The river in front of them was turbid and yellow, making a loud noise. I thought it was raining too hard for dancers to perform in the street, but I couldn't sit still and went into the bathroom two or three times. The room is dark and unknown. The paper fan separated from the adjacent room has a square hole, and the upper beam is hung with electric lights, one room and two rooms.

In the heavy rain, there was a slight drum sound in the distance. I pulled it open as if to scrape the wooden cover and leaned out. The drums seemed closer, and the wind and rain hit me on the head. I closed my eyes and listened, wondering where the drums came from. Soon, I heard the voice of Sanxian; Heard a woman's drawling voice; Heard cheerful laughter. Later, I learned that artists were called to the dining hall opposite the inn and could distinguish the voices of two or three women and three or four men. I'm waiting, thinking that I'll turn here as soon as the performance over there is over. But wine is so active that it never seems to stop. A woman's shrill voice always penetrates the night like lightning. I was a little nervous and sat there with the window open all the time. Every time I hear drums, my heart lights up.

"Ah, the dancer at the party. She is sitting and playing drums. "

When the drums stop, it makes people impatient. I got lost in the rain.

Soon, I don't know if everyone is chasing each other or dancing in circles. The chaotic footsteps lasted for a long time, and then suddenly quieted down. I opened my eyes wide as if to see through the silence in the dark. I'm very upset. Tonight's dancers won't be ruined, will they?

I closed the wooden window and went to bed, still in pain. I went to take a shower again and took a casual shower for a while. The rain stopped and the moon appeared. The autumn night washed by rain is bright and bright. I think even if I walk out of the bathroom barefoot, I still have nothing to do. So it took two hours.

three

Just after nine o'clock the next morning, the man came to my room. I got up and asked him to take a bath. Wan Li is cloudless and sunny in spring, which is beautiful at first sight. The rising river is warmly covered in the sunshine under the bathroom. I felt my troubles were like a dream last night. I said to the man, "You were ecstatic so late last night."

"Why, did you hear that?"

"Of course I heard it."

"It's all locals. People in this place only talk nonsense and scream, which is not interesting at all. "

He acted as if nothing had happened and I was silent.

"Those guys came to the other side of the bath. You see, they seem to have noticed this side and are still laughing. " In the direction he pointed, I looked at the public bathroom across the river. There are seven or eight people naked, dimly appeared in the water vapor.

Suddenly, a naked woman ran out from the end of the dark bath, stood there, made a gesture of jumping from the protruding part of the strip field to the bottom of the river bank, straightened her arms and shouted something. She was naked and didn't even have a towel. This is a dancer. I looked at her snow-white body and spread my legs like a Jatropha curcas. I felt a clear spring wash my body and mind, sighed deeply and laughed out loud. She is still a child. It is such a naive child, when she found us, she was happy, ran naked in the sun, stood on tiptoe and stretched herself. I laughed heartily and my mind was clear. The smile stayed on my lips for a long time.

I always thought the dancer was seventeen because her hair was too medium. Eight years old, plus she dressed as a girl, my guess is all wet.

I went back to my room with the man. Soon, the older girl came to the hotel yard to see the chrysanthemum garden. The dancer just walked in the middle of the bridge. The 40-year-old woman came out of the public bathhouse and looked in their direction. The dancer suddenly shrank her shoulders, thinking that she would be scolded, so she went back with a smile.

A woman in her forties came to the bridge and shouted, "Come and play!" "

The older girls also said, "Come and play!" They all went back. But this man sat until evening.

In the evening, I played Go with a banker who took off the paper, and suddenly I heard drums in the hotel yard. I'm gonna stand up.

"The buskers are coming."

"Hum, these roles are meaningless. Hey, hey, it's my turn. I'm down here, "said the paper merchant, pointing to the chessboard. "He is obsessed with winning or losing.

When I was in a trance, the artists seemed to go back to the past. I heard the man shouting in the yard, "Good evening!" "

I waved to him in the corridor. The artists whispered to each other for a while, then turned to the door of the hotel. Three girls followed the man and said "good evening" in turn, hanging their hands in the corridor and saluting like geisha. As you can see from the chessboard, I'm going to lose my chess game.

"There is no way out. I admit defeat. "

"Where will lose? My side is still not good. In any case, it is still a fine chess. "

Paper merchants don't look at artists, but count the numbers on the chessboard with one eye and one destination, and they are more and more cautious about the underground. Women put drums and three strings in the corner of the room and play gobang on the chessboard. At this time, the chess I once won has lost. However, paper merchants still insist that:

"how about it? The next episode, please the next episode. "

But I didn't mean anything, just smiled, and the paper merchant stopped reading, stood up and left.

The girls moved closer to the chessboard.

"Are you going on tour somewhere tonight?"

"I still want to walk around." The man said and looked at the girls.

"Well, let's call it a day. Let's have fun. "

"Then be happy, then be happy."

"Won't you be scolded?"

"Why, just running around, there will be no guests anyway."

They played gobang or something and didn't leave until after twelve o'clock.

After the dancer went back, I couldn't sleep, and my brain was still clear. I shouted in the corridor.

"Paper boss, paper boss!"

"Oh ..." The old man, who was nearly sixty years old, jumped out of the room and agreed with great energy.

"The sky will clear up tonight. Let me make it clear to you. "

I am full of a very belligerent mood at the moment.

four

It has been arranged to leave Tang Ye at eight o'clock the next morning. I put on the cap I bought next to the public bathing place, stuffed the college students' caps into my schoolbag, and walked to the small hotel along the street. The paper partition on the second floor was completely open, and I walked up without care, but the artists were still sleeping on the mat. I was a little panicked and stood in the corridor and froze.

On the mat in front of my heel, the dancer blushed and suddenly covered her face with two palms. She slept in a bunk with an older girl, with a thick color on her face and red lips and eyes. This funny sleeping position penetrated into my heart. She winked, turned over, covered her face with her palm, slipped out of bed and sat in the hallway.

"Thank you for last night!" As she spoke, she saluted beautifully and left me standing there at a loss.

The man and the big girl sleep in the same bed. Before I saw this, I had no idea that these two people were husband and wife.

"I'm very sorry. I was going to leave today, but we are going to receive guests tonight, and we are going to extend it by one day. If you have to leave today, I can still see you in Shimoda. We have decided to stay at Jiazhouwu Hotel, and you will find it soon, "said the 40-year-old woman, getting up on the mat. I feel abandoned.

"Can't go tomorrow? I didn't know in advance that mom was going to extend it by one day. It's always good to have company on the road. Let's go together tomorrow, "said the man.