The Decay of the Angel - Yukio Mishima

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Honda was groping through a fog. His meeting here with the Abbess seemed half a dream. He spoke loudly, as if to retrieve the self that receded like traces of breath vanishing from a lacquer tray. “If there was no Kiyoaki, then there was no Isao. There was no Ying Chan, and who knows, perhaps there has been no I.” For the first time there was strength in her eyes. “That too is as it is in each heart.” A long silence ensued. The Abbess clapped gently. The novice appeared and knelt in the doorway. “Mr. Honda has been kind enough to come all this way. I think he should see the south garden. I will take him there.” The novice led her by the hand. Honda stood up as if pulled by strings, and followed them through the dark rooms. The novice slid open a door and led him to the veranda. The wide south garden was before him. The lawn, with the hills behind it, blazed in the summer sun. “We have had cuckoos since morning,” said the novice. The grove beyond the lawn was dominated by maples. A wattled gate led to the hills. Some of the maples were red even now in the summer, flames
among the green. Steppingstones were scattered easily over the lawn, and wild carnations bloomed shyly among them. In a corner to the left were a well and a well wheel. A celadon stool on the lawn seemed so hot in the sun that it would surely burn anyone who tried to sit on it. Summer clouds ranged their dizzying shoulders over the green hills. It was a bright, quiet garden, without striking features. Like a rosary rubbed between the hands, the shrilling of cicadas held sway. There was no other sound. The garden was empty. He had come, thought Honda, to a place that had no memories, nothing. The noontide sun of summer flowed over the still garden. November 25, 1970 The Sea of Fertility THE END
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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
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heart. Tōru came almost to have ho
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policies calculated to give Tōru a
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For two or three weeks the seventy-
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guard examining a pass. His questio
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22 SUPPOSE YOU keep company with he
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heavy. “How perfectly dreadful. T
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23 RELUCTANT TO LEAVE Tōru by hims
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him. Why had the two of them come i
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“A far more inappropriate simile,
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enches. Honda could see from the an
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and closer, spread color on hard, t
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I know well enough that the more fi
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The little present Momoko gave me i
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and I grow weary of pressing the co
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world. I was too busy receiving oth
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was aware of the situation. Had any
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have looked for a reason. I have fo
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former nurse. Momoko looked aside i
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till four. I urged Momoko inside. T
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There were autumn cicadas in the ev
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I saw how complicated their movemen
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imagine rather older women, but suc
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attract a certain sort of woman wit
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is something that the winter sky ha
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She had given me a little silver ch
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I cannot be sure whether Momoko rea
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Western staircase. Only from it do
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or going out to look, but an overpo
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from outside. If only I could raise
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“Make me a girl who does not love
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moment’s dalliance is a matter of
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25 TŌRU BEGAN preparatory school a
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the position best for the Hondas, f
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All he had to do was enjoy the move
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moved the unresting bustle of the h
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“But you were very sweet while it
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26 THE VERY QUESTION was indignant
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Shimizu and installed her in the ga
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The cold water would liven his puls
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man’s still alive.” That was hi
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nature of things. He had taught the
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stupid crowds, cut through the mass
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none. The garden had been made over
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Time went past along the indefinabl
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had made it possible for Honda to e
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were even now engaged in close comb
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the left loomed the round wall of t
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shirts scattered through the groves
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Although the little man showed no d
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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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Page 312 and 313: will die at twenty?” “I think p
Page 314 and 315: unable to remember the exact day. M
Page 316 and 317: would call a simulator. I doubt mys
Page 318 and 319: have seen and think you have seen i
Page 320 and 321: 28 REMARKABLY, Tōru came to Honda
Page 322 and 323: and now it was the blind Tōru who
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Page 330 and 331: “Day after tomorrow at three? I d
Page 332 and 333: dinner. The middle-aged housekeeper
Page 334 and 335: him from air-conditioning. It was a
Page 336 and 337: his ears. No doubt other people, sa
Page 338 and 339: And there was no smell of flowers.
Page 340 and 341: Honda had noticed numbers of Kyoto
Page 342 and 343: green platform was like a doll stan
Page 344 and 345: 30 THEY COULD perfectly well drive
Page 346 and 347: coolness of its shadows. There was
Page 348 and 349: among leaves like young swallows’
Page 350 and 351: slumber. They made him think of Tha
Page 352 and 353: A steward probably in his sixties,
Page 354 and 355: If, after so much, the Abbess were
Page 356 and 357: ightness and darkness. For Honda it
Page 358 and 359: girlish curiosity in her eyes, and
Page 362 and 363: Footnote ∗ Translator’s note: t
Page 364: Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Ch
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