The Decay of the Angel - Yukio Mishima

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I cannot be sure whether Momoko really thought so, or whether she was trying to put herself at ease, or whether she sought to conceal her uneasiness in a play of innocence. I had lost the urge, in any case, to tell her she was wrong. And so my operations turned to Nagisa. She was a phlegmatic sort, and I could appeal to her bland, harmless curiosity. If she had time to spare, I said, she might like to see my young fiancée from a distance. She accepted immediately. She asked me over and over again whether I had slept with Momoko. She seemed very interested in the practical application her pupil had made of her lessons. I told her when I was to meet Momoko at the Renoir and made her promise to act like a stranger. I knew that she was not one to keep a promise. I was aware that shortly after our arrival Nagisa had arrived and taken a seat behind us, on the other side of the fountain. Silently and lazily, like a cat, she seemed to be glancing at us from time to time. Since Momoko was the innocent one, the understanding between Nagisa and myself was suddenly closer, and it was as if most of my remarks were being directed at her. The silly expression “physical bond” took meaning.
I was sure that she could hear us through the murmur of the fountain. In the awareness of being overheard, my words took on a certain appearance of sincerity. Momoko was delighted that I was in such good spirits. She was congratulating herself, I could see, that we got on so nicely, though she did not know why. Tired of conversation, I took the medal from my collar and bit at it. Far from reproving me, Momoko laughed happily. I caught a taste of silver, and against my tongue it felt like an indissoluble pill. The chain brushed my lip and chin. It was pleasant all the same. I felt like a bored dog. Through the corner of my eye I saw that Nagisa had stood up. I knew from Momoko’s wide eyes that she was standing beside us. Suddenly a red-nailed hand was tugging at the medal. “You’re not to eat my medal.” I stood up and introduced the two. “I’m sorry to have interrupted you.” Nagisa walked off. “I’ll see you later.” Momoko was blanched and trembling. It was snowing. I spent a tedious Saturday afternoon at home. There is a window at the landing of the
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Table of Contents Cover Copyright A
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This eBook is copyright material an
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Isle of Houghton, Corner of Boundar
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BY YUKIO MISHIMA THE SEA OF FERTILI
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and then blue distance once more. T
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Very strange. The whole vast space
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maru, due to make port at four. He
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ut now his eye caught, the rustic p
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Receiving and dispatching of ships
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and a cot completed the furnishings
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“Hello. This is Teikoku Signal. Y
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the eye that had nothing to create,
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This orphan, one of the elect, diff
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Tōru shoved the stubby pencil he h
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great beauty might permit herself,
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downtown any more. Every man I pass
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eautiful woman that keeps hell at a
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Kinué came upon a basic but elusiv
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direction, and the stern and prow l
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second mate, on watch. Tōru could
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4 AT ABOUT the same time Honda, at
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heavenly stream of sanctification.
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a man swimming in from the ocean mi
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lungs. Three thirty, and there was
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the vanished rose, clouds scattered
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ustle in the new houses beyond the
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7 HONDA and Keiko Hisamatsu were pe
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would have been her uncle, anyhow i
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their liking. There were no tourist
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humanity. His unhappiness she made
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“That’s it. I was between life
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after each player had received elev
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The lump of mucus, like bêche-de-m
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enjoyment. There was a strange sadn
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It was a chore even to reach for th
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“You tell me to have it repaired,
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“The sin is ours, Kiyo’s and mi
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impossibility, gambled his own life
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as Keiko’s gentleman friend. He w
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8 AT THE OPENING of Robe of Feather
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forth music so beautiful that no mu
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Within the pavilion are angels in p
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had in the cab that had brought him
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them were quite devoid of sanctity.
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Serpent-twined legs spread wide, ha
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sombrero. The crowd clapped. Keiko
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her. On their return they looked in
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10 WAS THERE nothing more to see, w
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the light was behind it to send dow
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might have a look around for our ed
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trance-like mating of the sea and t
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a somewhat worn silver coin; and th
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world to destruction while seeking
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desk. Now he stood up and moved to
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“Very useful work. Keep at it.”
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Asia Line, three yellow crowns on a
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Perhaps there was nothing of the ac
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cigarette. Cigarette in hand, she w
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knows what you know can never be be
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Scotch. Honda had kept one thing fr
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Viennese psychoanalysis; but he cou
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Kinué stopped by in the morning, a
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ystander and now all of a sudden he
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for the sake of a beautiful woman.
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the Denmark-maru, and the Kōyō-ma
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green changed, rose and swelled int
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surface. Five o’clock. The white
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oom. He followed the great hull of
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The ship’s agent answered. “Hel
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embers of two cigarettes were brush
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“The Daichū is coming into three
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There was no concept for which he h
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in which industrious young men were
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investigations.” Tōru frowned. H
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conclusion to cynicism. Tōru had o
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and so long as it was to the Tōru
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15 TŌRU WAS off duty the next day.
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16 SURPRISED to learn that Tōru’
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take the risks. In the decade since
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end of economic growth or with a Co
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een a still-young Honda who had nam
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human volition sought to make histo
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preferred not to. Instead he took a
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He is of course single. Ideological
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17 HONDA CHOSE a day late in Octobe
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“I don’t feel any great need fo
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no virtues more highly prized in Ja
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18 THE THREE TUTORS were all highly
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happiness for him; but he did not f
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“I had no idea there was such a p
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the half circle of coffee dregs. Th
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the body floating there. We all kno
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clouds drifted by. The wind carried
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decorated with a cheap flower desig
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grapefruit. A carefully scrutinized
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felt like a liberated child spittin
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Sometimes he almost thought, after
Page 196 and 197: heart. Tōru came almost to have ho
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Page 200 and 201: For two or three weeks the seventy-
Page 202 and 203: guard examining a pass. His questio
Page 204 and 205: 22 SUPPOSE YOU keep company with he
Page 206 and 207: heavy. “How perfectly dreadful. T
Page 208 and 209: 23 RELUCTANT TO LEAVE Tōru by hims
Page 210 and 211: him. Why had the two of them come i
Page 212 and 213: “A far more inappropriate simile,
Page 214 and 215: enches. Honda could see from the an
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Page 218 and 219: I know well enough that the more fi
Page 220 and 221: The little present Momoko gave me i
Page 222 and 223: and I grow weary of pressing the co
Page 224 and 225: world. I was too busy receiving oth
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Page 228 and 229: have looked for a reason. I have fo
Page 230 and 231: former nurse. Momoko looked aside i
Page 232 and 233: till four. I urged Momoko inside. T
Page 234 and 235: There were autumn cicadas in the ev
Page 236 and 237: I saw how complicated their movemen
Page 238 and 239: imagine rather older women, but suc
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Page 242 and 243: is something that the winter sky ha
Page 244 and 245: She had given me a little silver ch
Page 248 and 249: Western staircase. Only from it do
Page 250 and 251: or going out to look, but an overpo
Page 252 and 253: from outside. If only I could raise
Page 254 and 255: “Make me a girl who does not love
Page 256 and 257: moment’s dalliance is a matter of
Page 258 and 259: 25 TŌRU BEGAN preparatory school a
Page 260 and 261: the position best for the Hondas, f
Page 262 and 263: All he had to do was enjoy the move
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Page 266 and 267: “But you were very sweet while it
Page 268 and 269: 26 THE VERY QUESTION was indignant
Page 270 and 271: Shimizu and installed her in the ga
Page 272 and 273: The cold water would liven his puls
Page 274 and 275: man’s still alive.” That was hi
Page 276 and 277: nature of things. He had taught the
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Page 282 and 283: Time went past along the indefinabl
Page 284 and 285: had made it possible for Honda to e
Page 286 and 287: were even now engaged in close comb
Page 288 and 289: the left loomed the round wall of t
Page 290 and 291: shirts scattered through the groves
Page 292 and 293: Although the little man showed no d
Page 294 and 295: scream. The man sprang up and looke
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Before the woman confronted him, Ho
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concepts he had acquired in India?
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27 LATE IN NOVEMBER a splendid engr
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immorality, retreated trembling beh
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“Turn around. Oh, it’s very nic
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Georgette stole, draped down over t
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“Just sit down there quietly, if
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he had taken a liking? What did you
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will die at twenty?” “I think p
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unable to remember the exact day. M
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would call a simulator. I doubt mys
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have seen and think you have seen i
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28 REMARKABLY, Tōru came to Honda
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and now it was the blind Tōru who
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of water hit his shining flesh like
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elements, to dissolve into the corp
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the entrails than from reason, a lo
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“Day after tomorrow at three? I d
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dinner. The middle-aged housekeeper
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him from air-conditioning. It was a
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his ears. No doubt other people, sa
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And there was no smell of flowers.
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Honda had noticed numbers of Kyoto
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green platform was like a doll stan
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30 THEY COULD perfectly well drive
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coolness of its shadows. There was
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among leaves like young swallows’
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slumber. They made him think of Tha
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A steward probably in his sixties,
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If, after so much, the Abbess were
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ightness and darkness. For Honda it
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girlish curiosity in her eyes, and
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Honda was groping through a fog. Hi
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Footnote ∗ Translator’s note: t
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Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Ch
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The Decay of the Angel - Yukio Mishima

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