Chapter 1: "The Bears of Mt. Nametoko"
"The Bears of Mt. Nametoko" is one of many children stories, written by the poet and fiction writer Miyazawa Kenji (宮沢 賢治, 1896 - 1933).
The story tells a tale of Kojuro, a bear hunter. Kojuro lived in the mountains and knew the animals well. He felt terrible every time he killed one; but he had to, for it was how he made his living. As Kenji describes them, the bears of Mt. Nametoko knew of Kojuro's plight and loved and respected him deeply. As for Kojuro, whenever he shot and felled a fierce bear that had charged at him, he would approach it and say, "Don't think I killed you, Bear, because I hated you. I have to make a living, just as you have to be shot. I'd like to do different work, work with no sin attached, but I've got no field, and they say my trees belong to the authorities, and when I go into the village nobody will have anything to do with me. I'm a hunter because I can't help it. It's fate that made you a bear, and it's fate that makes me do this work. Make sure you're not reborn as a bear next time!"
Kojuro was also not one to kill bears randomly. One day, after taking the wrong trail several times--something unusual for him--Kojuro finally found his hut as nightfall approached. Walking down the hill to a spring, he came across two bears, a mother and a cub, "standing in the faint light of the still new moon, staring intently at the far-off valley with their paws up to their foreheads, just as human beings do when gazing into the distance." Kojuro was deeply moved by what he saw and the conversation he heard, and he retreated--taking care not to make a sound.
At the end of the story Kojuro is killed by a bear. Feeling everything around him turn white, he hears what sounds like the bear saying, "Ah, Kojuro, I didn't mean to kill you" far off in the distance. Realizing that he is dying, Kojuro thinks to himself, "Forgive me, Bears." Three days later, the night was crystal clear, "the moon hung in the sky like a great ball of rice," and stars glimmered as if they were breathing. "On the plateau on top of the mountain, surrounded by chestnut trees and snowy peaks, many great black shapes were gathered in a ring, each casting its own black shadow, each prostrate in the snow like a Muslim at prayer, never moving." The great black shapes were bears, of course, keeping vigil over Kojuro's body.
-From Kenji-World.net
Chapter 1: "The Bears of Mt. Nametoko"
"The Bears of Mt. Nametoko" is one of many children stories, written by the poet and fiction writer Miyazawa Kenji (宮沢 賢治, 1896 - 1933).
The story tells a tale of Kojuro, a bear hunter. Kojuro lived in the mountains and knew the animals well. He felt terrible every time he killed one; but he had to, for it was how he made his living. As Kenji describes them, the bears of Mt. Nametoko knew of Kojuro's plight and loved and respected him deeply. As for Kojuro, whenever he shot and felled a fierce bear that had charged at him, he would approach it and say, "Don't think I killed you, Bear, because I hated you. I have to make a living, just as you have to be shot. I'd like to do different work, work with no sin attached, but I've got no field, and they say my trees belong to the authorities, and when I go into the village nobody will have anything to do with me. I'm a hunter because I can't help it. It's fate that made you a bear, and it's fate that makes me do this work. Make sure you're not reborn as a bear next time!"
Kojuro was also not one to kill bears randomly. One day, after taking the wrong trail several times--something unusual for him--Kojuro finally found his hut as nightfall approached. Walking down the hill to a spring, he came across two bears, a mother and a cub, "standing in the faint light of the still new moon, staring intently at the far-off valley with their paws up to their foreheads, just as human beings do when gazing into the distance." Kojuro was deeply moved by what he saw and the conversation he heard, and he retreated--taking care not to make a sound.
At the end of the story Kojuro is killed by a bear. Feeling everything around him turn white, he hears what sounds like the bear saying, "Ah, Kojuro, I didn't mean to kill you" far off in the distance. Realizing that he is dying, Kojuro thinks to himself, "Forgive me, Bears." Three days later, the night was crystal clear, "the moon hung in the sky like a great ball of rice," and stars glimmered as if they were breathing. "On the plateau on top of the mountain, surrounded by chestnut trees and snowy peaks, many great black shapes were gathered in a ring, each casting its own black shadow, each prostrate in the snow like a Muslim at prayer, never moving." The great black shapes were bears, of course, keeping vigil over Kojuro's body.
-From Kenji-World.net
Comments
Leave a comment