Botchan (Penguin Translated Texts) by Soseki Natsume

Author:Soseki, Natsume
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780718194796
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2012-10-03T16:00:00+00:00

7

I moved out of my lodgings that very night. As I was packing my things the landlady came in and inquired if anything was wrong. She also told me that if I was upset about anything, all I had to do was say so and they would make the necessary changes. That was a surprise! How did there get to be so many of these mixed-up people running around in the world? How was I supposed to know if she wanted me to leave or wanted me to stay? She was downright crazy. Getting into an argument with somebody like this would be a disgrace for any self-respecting Tokyo native, so I went out to find a man with a cart and left the place right away.

Leaving was easy enough, but I had no idea where to go. When the man asked where he should take my things, I told him to just keep quiet and follow me and he’d find out soon enough, and then set off at a lively pace. I thought the easiest thing would be to go back to Yamashiro-ya, but since I’d only have to leave again anyway, it would actually end up being more of a bother. If I just kept walking around I was bound to come across a boardinghouse or a place with a Room for Rent sign sooner or later. That, I figured, would be the place that fate had ordained for me. As I made my way through streets that looked like they’d be nice, quiet places to live, I ended up in Kajiyachō. This was where families of the samurai class had their mansions, not the part of town to find something like a boardinghouse in. Just as I was thinking I ought to head back toward a busier district, I suddenly had a good idea: my esteemed colleague the Pale Squash lived in this neighborhood. His family had occupied one of these mansions for generations, so he would be sure to know the area well. If I dropped in at his place and asked him about it, he might be able to come up with a promising suggestion. Luckily I’d already paid a call on him once before, so I had a pretty clear idea of how to get to his house, and I didn’t have to spend a lot of time wandering around trying to find it. When I came to the house that I thought was probably the right one, I went up to the entrance and called out ‘Excuse me!’ twice. An elderly lady who looked to be about fifty appeared from inside holding an old-fashioned paper-wick lamp. Young women are fine with me, too, but somehow seeing an older one always gives me a good feeling. I guess it’s because I like Kiyo so much, and it just seems to me that the same feeling must apply to old ladies everywhere. She was a dignified-looking lady with an old-fashioned widow’s short haircut tied neatly in the back; since her features closely resembled the Squash’s I assumed she was his mother.

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