Because of an hereditary recklessness, I have been playing always a losing game since my childhood. During my grammar school days, I was once laid up for about a week by jumping from the second story of the school building.
Some may ask why I committed such a rash act. There was no particular reason for doing such a thing except I happened to be looking out into the yard from the second floor of the newly-built school house, when one of my classmates, joking, shouted at me; “Say, you big bluff, I’ll bet you can’t jump down from there! O, you chicken-heart, ha, ha!” So I jumped down.
The janitor of the school had to carry me home on his back, and when my father saw me, he yelled derisively, “What a fellow you are to go and get your bones dislocated by jumping only from a second story!“
Natsume Sōseki(H2)
- Kokoro
- Botchan
- Sanshirō
Major works(H3)
- Wagahai wa Neko dearu
- Sorekara
- Omoidasu Koto nado
Rather dull? See if they don’t cut!(H4)
“Cut your finger, then,” he challenged. And with “Finger nothing! Here
goes!” I cut my thumb slant-wise. Fortunately the knife was small and
the bone of the thumb hard enough, so the thumb is still there, but the
scar will be there until my death.
About twenty steps to the east edge of our garden, there was a moderate-sized vegetable yard
Quoted from Botchan
| Title | Year | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| Botchan | April 1906 | English translation, 2004 |
| Nihyaku-tōka | October 1906 | Translated in 2011 |
| Sorekara | June 1909 |
Gubijinsō
One certain evening I hid myself behind a folding-gate of the fence and caught him in the act.
Garasu Do no Uchi
Having his retreat cut off he grappled with me in desperation.
Accordion
This shopkeeper’s son was a boy about 13 or 14
years old named Kantaro. Kantaro was, it happens, a mollycoddle.
Nevertheless he had the temerity to come over the fence to our yard and
steal my chestnuts.