The Decay of the Angel - Yukio Mishima

8
AT THE OPENING of Robe of Feathers, two
fishermen, one of them the deuteragonist, are
engaged in conversation. “The boatmen call out as
they make their way up the tempestuous Mio
channel.” There comes a description of the journey.
“Suddenly, a thousand leagues off, the friendly hills
are enshrouded in clouds.” A fine long robe of silk
hangs on the pine at center rear. Hakuryō starts off
with it, thinking to make it his own. The protagonist,
the angel, appears. He ignores her pleas that he
return it. She is desolate, unable to fly back to the
heavens.
“Hakuryō clutches the robe. She is helpless. Her
tears like the dew in her jeweled hair, she weeps. The
flowers fade, the five signs of the decay of the angel
come forth.”
On the express from Tokyo Keiko was humming the
prologue. “And what,” she asked with sudden
earnestness, “are the five signs of the decay of the
angel?”
Honda was well informed. He had looked into the
matter of angels after that dream. The five signs are