The Sound of the Mountain by Yasunari Kawabata, Edward G. Seidensticker Read Free Book Online Page B

amaranth by the house with the sunflowers,’ said Shingo, remembering that those remarkable sunflowers had been knocked down in the storm.
    Blossoms had lain in the street, broken off with six inches or so of stem. They had been there for several days, like severed human heads.
    First the petals withered, and then the stems dried and turned dirty and gray.
    Shingo had to step over them on his way to and from work. He did not like to look at them.
    The bases of the stems stood leafless by the gate.
    Beside them, five or six stalks of amaranth were taking on color.
    ‘But there aren’t any around here like the ones next door,’ said Yasuko.

2
    It was her family house that Yasuko had dreamed of.
    It had been unoccupied for several years now, since her parents’ death.
    Apparently meaning Yasuko to succeed to the family name, * her father had sent his older daughter out in marriage. It should have been the opposite for a father who favored his older daughter, but, with so many men asking for the hand of her beautiful sister, he had probably felt sorry for Yasuko.
    Perhaps, therefore, he gave up hope for Yasuko when, after her sister’s death, she went to work in the house into which the sister had married, and seemed intent upon taking her place. Perhaps he felt a certain guilt because parents and family had made her feel so inclined.
    Yasuko’s marriage to Shingo seemed to please him.
    He decided to live out his years with no family heir.
    Shingo was now older than the father had been when he gave Yasuko in marriage.
    Yasuko’s mother had died first, and the fields had all been sold when the father died, leaving only the house and a modest amount of forest land. There were no heirlooms of any importance.
    The remaining property was in Yasuko’s name, but the management had been turned over to a country relative. The forests had probably been cut down to pay taxes. It had been many years since Yasuko had last had either income or expenses related to the country place.
    There was a prospective buyer when, during the war, the countryside was crowded with refugees, but Yasuko felt nostalgic about the house, and Shingo did not press her.
    It was in that house that they had been married. In return for giving his only surviving daughter in marriage, the father had asked that the ceremony be held in his house.
    A chestnut fell as they were exchanging marriage cups. It struck a large stone in the garden, and, because of the angle, rebounded a very long way and fell into a brook. The rebound was so extraordinary that Shingo was on the point of calling out in surprise. He looked around the room.
    No one else seemed to have noticed.
    The next day Shingo went down to hunt for it. He found several chestnuts at the edge of the water. He could not be sure he had the one that had fallen during the ceremony; but he picked one up, thinking to tell Yasuko of it.
    But then he decided that he was being childish. And would Yasuko, and others to whom he might speak of it, believe him?
    He threw it into a clump of grass by the water.
    It was less fear that Yasuko would not believe him than shyness before her brother-in-law that kept him from speaking.
    Had the brother-in-law not been present, Shingo might have spoken of it at the ceremony the day before. In the presence of her brother-in-law, he felt a constraint very like shame.
    He had certain feelings of guilt for having continued to be drawn to the sister even after she was married, and the sister’s death and Yasuko’s marriage had disturbed her brother-in-law.
    For Yasuko, the feelings of shame must have been even stronger. One might say that, pretending not to know her real feelings, her sister’s widower had used her as a convenient substitute for a maid.
    It was natural that, as a relative, he should be invited to Yasuko’s wedding. Very uncomfortable all the same. Shingo found it difficult to look at him.
    The brother-in-law was a handsome man who quite outshone the bride. It