Madame Chrysantheme by Pierre Loti

P >> Pierre Loti >> Madame Chrysantheme

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12

{~--- UTF-8 BOM ---~}

MADAME CHRYSANTHEME

By PIERRE LOTI

TRANSLATED BY LAURA ENSOR

THE MODERN LIBRARY

PUBLISHERS NEW YORK

_Manufactured in the United States of America_
_Bound for_ THE MODERN LIBRARY _by H. Wolff_

TO MADAME LA DUCHESSE DE RICHELIEU.

_Madame La Duchesse_,

_Allow me to crave your acceptance of the following work, as a
respectful tribute of my attachment._

_I felt some hesitation in offering it, for its main incident cannot
be deemed altogether proper; but I have striven that in its expression
at least, it should not sin against good taste, and I trust that my
endeavours have been successful._

_It is the diary of a summer of my life, in which I have changed
nothing, not even the dates, thinking as I do, that in our efforts to_
arrange _matters we often only succeed in disarranging them. Although
the most important role may appear to devolve on Madame Chrysantheme,
it is very certain that the three principal personages are_ myself,
Japan, _and the effect produced on me by that country._

_Do you remember a certain photograph_--_rather ridiculous I must
admit_--_representing that big fellow Yves, a Japanese girl and
myself, grouped closely together as we were placed side by side by a
Nagasaki artist? You smiled when I assured you that the carefully
combed little creature placed between us two, had been_ one of our
neighbours. _Kindly welcome my book with the same indulgent smile,
without seeking therein a meaning either good or bad, in the same
spirit that you would receive some quaint bit of pottery, some
grotesquely carved ivory idol, or some preposterous trifle brought
back for you from this singular fatherland of all preposterousness._

_Believe me with the deepest respect, Madame la Duchesse,_

_Your affectionate_

PIERRE LOTI.

INTRODUCTION

At sea, about two o'clock in the morning, on a clear night, under a
star-lit sky.

Yves stood near me on the bridge, and we were talking of the country,
so utterly unknown to us both, to which the chances of our destiny
were now wafting us. As we were to cast anchor the following day, we
enjoyed the state of expectation, and formed a thousand plans.

"As for me," I said, "I shall at once marry."

"Ah!" returned Yves, with the indifferent air of a man whom nothing
can surprise.

"Yes--I shall choose a little yellow-skinned woman with black hair and
cat's eyes. She must be pretty. Not much bigger than a doll. You shall
have a room in our house. A little paper house, in the midst of green
gardens, prettily shaded. We shall live among flowers, everything
around us shall blossom, and each morning our dwelling shall be filled
with nosegays, nosegays such as you have never dreamt of."

Yves now began to take an interest in these plans for my future
household; indeed, he would have listened with as much confidence, if
I had manifested the intention of taking temporary vows in some
monastery of this new country, or of marrying some island queen and
shutting myself up with her in a house built of jade, in the middle of
an enchanted lake.

In reality I had quite made up my mind to carry out the scheme I had
unfolded to him. Yes, actually, led on by ennui and solitude, I had
gradually arrived at dreaming of and looking forward to this absurd
marriage. And then, above all, to live for awhile on land, in some
shady nook, amid trees and flowers. How tempting it sounded after the
long months we had been wasting at the Pescadores (hot and arid
islands, devoid of freshness, woods, or streamlets, full of faint
odors of China and of death).

We had made great way in latitude, since our vessel had quitted that
Chinese furnace, and the constellations in the sky had undergone a
series of rapid changes; the Southern Cross had disappeared at the
same time as the other austral stars; and the Great Bear rising on the
horizon, was almost on as high a level as it is in the French sky. The
fresh evening breeze soothed and revived us, bringing back to us the
memory of our summer night watches on the coast of Brittany.

What a distance we were, however, from those familiar coasts! What a
terrible distance!

MADAME CHRYSANTHEME

MADAME CHRYSANTHEME

I.

At dawn of day we sighted Japan.

Precisely at the foretold moment Japan arose before us, afar off, like
a clear and distinct dot in the vast sea, which for so many days had
been but a blank space.

At first we saw nothing in the rising sun but a series of tiny
pink-tipped heights (the foremost portion of the Fukai islands). Soon,
however, appeared all along the horizon, like a thick cloud, a dark
veil over the waters, Japan itself; and little by little out of the
dense shadow arose the sharp opaque outlines of the Nagasaki
mountains.

The wind was dead against us, and the strong breeze, which steadily
increased, seemed as if the country were blowing with all its might
against us, in a vain effort to drive us away from its shores. The
sea, the rigging, the vessel itself, all vibrated and quivered as if
with emotion.

II.

By three o'clock in the afternoon all these far-off objects drew close
to us, so close, indeed, that they overshadowed us by their rocky
masses and dense green thickets.

We now entered into a shady kind of channel enclosed between two high
ranges of mountains, curiously symmetrical in shape--like stage
scenery, very fine, though unlike nature. It seemed as if Japan opened
to our view, through a fairy-like rent, which thus allowed us to
penetrate into her very heart.

Nagasaki, as yet unseen, must be at the extremity of this long and
curious bay. All around us was admirably green. The strong sea-breeze
had suddenly fallen, and was succeeded by a perfect calm; the
atmosphere, now very warm, was laden with the perfume of flowers. In
the valley resounded the ceaseless whirr of the cicalas, answering
each other from one shore to another; the mountains reechoed with
innumerable sounds; the whole country seemed to vibrate like crystal.
On our way we passed among myriads of Japanese junks, gliding softly,
wafted by imperceptible breezes on the unruffled water; their motion
could scarcely be heard, and their white sails, stretched out on
yards, fell languidly in a thousand horizontal folds like
window-blinds, their strangely contorted poops rising up castlewise in
the air, reminding one of the towering ships of the middle ages. In
the midst of the intense greenery of this wall of mountains, they
stood out with a snowy whiteness.

What a country of verdure and shade is Japan; what an unlooked-for
Eden!

Beyond us, at sea, it must have been full daylight; but here, in the
recesses of the valley, we already felt the impression of evening;
beneath the summits in full sunlight, the base of the mountains and
all the thickly wooded parts near the water's edge were steeped in
twilight.

The passing junks, gleaming white against the background of dark
foliage, were silently and dexterously maneuvered by small yellow men,
stark naked, with long hair piled up in womanlike fashion on their
heads. Gradually, as we advanced further up the green channel, the
perfumes became more penetrating, and the monotonous chirp of the
cicalas swelled out like an orchestral crescendo. Above us, on the
luminous sky, sharply delineated between the mountains, a species of
hawk hovered about, screaming out with a deep human voice, "Han! Han!
Han!" its melancholy call lengthened out by the surrounding echoes.

All this fresh and luxurious nature bore the impress of a peculiar
Japanese type, which seemed to pervade even the mountain tops, and
consisted, as it were, in an untruthful aspect of too much prettiness.
The trees were grouped in clusters, with the same pretentious grace as
on the lacquered trays. Large rocks sprang up in exaggerated shapes,
side by side with rounded lawn-like hillocks; all the incongruous
elements of landscape were grouped together as though it were an
artificial creation.

Looking intently, here and there might be seen, often built in
counterscarp on the very brink of an abyss, some old, tiny, mysterious
pagoda; half hidden in the foliage of the overhanging trees; bringing
to the minds of new arrivals such as ourselves, the sense of
unfamiliarity and strangeness; and the feeling that in this country,
the Spirits, the Sylvan Gods, the antique symbols, faithful guardians
of the woods and forests, were unknown and uncomprehended.

* * * * *

When Nagasaki rose before us, the sight that greeted our eyes was
disappointing; situated at the foot of green overhanging mountains, it
looked like any other commonplace town. In front of it lay a tangled
mass of vessels, carrying all the flags of the world; steamboats just
as in any other port, with dark funnels and black smoke, and behind
them quays covered with factories: nothing in fact was wanting in the
way of ordinary, trivial, every-day objects.

Some day, when man shall have made all things alike, the earth will be
a dull, tedious dwelling-place, and we shall have even to give up
traveling and seeking for a change which shall no longer be found.

At about six o'clock, we dropped anchor noisily amid the mass of
vessels already there, and were immediately invaded.

Invaded by a mercantile, bustling, comical Japan, which rushed upon us
in full boat-loads, full junks, like a rising sea; little men and
little women coming in a continuous, uninterrupted stream, without
cries, without squabbles, noiselessly, each one making so smiling a
bow that it was impossible to be angry with them, and that indeed by
reflex action we smiled and bowed also. They all carried on their
backs little baskets, little boxes, receptacles of every shape,
fitting into each other in the most ingenious manner, each one
containing several others, and multiplying till they filled up
everything, in endless number; from these they drew forth all manners
of curious and unexpected things, folding screens, slippers, soap,
lanterns, sleeve-links, live cicalas chirping in little cages,
jewelry, tame white mice turning little cardboard mills, quaint
photographs, hot soups and stews in bowls ready to be served out in
rations to the crew;--china, a legion of vases, teapots, cups, little
pots and plates. In one moment, all this was unpacked, spread out with
astounding rapidity and a certain talent for arrangement; each seller
squatting monkey-like, hands touching feet, behind his fancy
ware--always smiling, bending low with the most engaging bows. Under
the mass of these many-colored things, the deck presented the
appearance of an immense bazaar; the sailors, very much amused and
full of fun, walked among the heaped-up piles, taking the little women
by the chin, buying anything and everything, throwing broadcast their
white dollars. But, good gracious, how ugly, mean and grotesque all
those folk were. Given my projects of marriage, I began to feel
singularly uneasy and disenchanted.

* * * * *

Yves and myself were on duty till the next morning, and after the
first bustle, which always takes place on board when settling down in
harbor--(boats to lower, booms to swing out, running rigging to make
taut)--we had nothing more to do but to look on. We said to one
another: "Where are we in reality?--In the United States?--In some
English Colony in Australia, or in New Zealand?"

Consular residences, custom-house offices, manufactories; a dry dock
in which a Russian frigate was lying; on the heights the large
European concession, sprinkled with villas, and on the quays, American
bars for the sailors. Further off, it is true, further off, far away
behind these common-place objects, in the very depths of the immense
green valley, peered thousands upon thousands of tiny black houses, a
tangled mass of curious appearance, from which here and there emerged
some higher, dark red, painted roofs, probably the true old Japanese
Nagasaki which still exists. And in those quarters, who knows, there
may be, lurking behind a paper screen, some affected cat's-eyed little
woman, whom perhaps in two or three days (having no time to lose) I
shall marry!! But no, the picture painted by my fancy has faded. I can
no longer see this little creature in my mind's eye; the sellers of
the white mice have blurred her image; I fear now, lest she should be
like them.

At nightfall, the decks were suddenly cleared as by enchantment; in a
second, they had all shut up their boxes, folded their sliding
screens, their trick fans, and, humbly bowing to each of us, the
little men and little women disappeared.

Slowly, as the shades of night closed around us mingling all things in
the bluish darkness, this Japan surrounding us, became once more, by
degrees, little by little, a fairy-like and enchanted country. The
great mountains, now all black, were mirrored and doubled in the still
water at their feet on which we floated, reflecting therein their
sharply reversed outlines, and presenting the mirage of fearful
precipices, over which we hung:--- the stars also were reversed in
their order, making, in the depths of the imaginary abyss, a
sprinkling of tiny phosphorescent lights.

Then all Nagasaki became profusely illuminated, covering itself with
multitudes of lanterns: the smallest suburb, the smallest village was
lit up; the tiniest hut perched up on high among the trees, and which
in the daytime was invisible, threw out its little glow-worm glimmer.
Soon there were numberless lights all over the country, on all the
shores of the bay, from top to bottom of the mountains; myriads of
glowing fires shone out in the darkness, conveying the impression of
a vast capital, rising up around us in one bewildering amphitheater.
Beneath, in the silent waters, another town, also illuminated, seemed
to descend into the depths of the abyss. The night was balmy, pure,
delicious; the atmosphere laden with the perfume of flowers came
wafted to us from the mountains. From the "tea houses" and other
nocturnal resorts, the sound of guitars reached our ears, seeming in
the distance the sweetest of music. And the whirr of the
cicalas--which, in Japan, is one of the continuous noises of life, and
which in a few days we shall no longer even be aware of, so completely
is it the background and foundation of all the other terrestrial
sounds--was sonorous, incessant, softly monotonous, just like the
cascade of a crystal waterfall.

III.

The next day the rain came down in torrents, a regular downpour,
merciless and unceasing, blinding and drenching everything,--a thick
rain so dense that it was impossible to see through it from one end of
the vessel to the other. It seemed as though the clouds of the whole
world had amassed themselves in Nagasaki bay, and had chosen this
great green funnel to stream down to their hearts' content. And it
rained, it rained, it became almost as dark as night, so thickly did
the rain fall. Through a veil of crumbled water, we still perceived
the base of the mountains, but the summits were lost to sight among
the great somber masses weighing down upon us. Above us shreds of
clouds, seemingly torn from the dark vault, draggled across the trees,
like vast gray rags,--continually melting away in water, torrents of
water. There was wind too, and it howled through the ravines with a
deep-sounding tone. The whole surface of the bay, bespattered by the
rain, flogged by the gusts of wind that blew from all quarters,
splashed, moaned and seethed in violent agitation.

What wretched weather for a first landing, and how was I to find a
wife through such a deluge, in an unknown country!

* * * * *

No matter! I dressed myself and said to Yves, who smiled at my
obstinate determination in spite of unfavorable circumstances:

"Hail me a 'sampan,' brother, please."

Yves then, by a motion of his arm through the wind and rain, summoned
a kind of little white wooden sarcophagus which was skipping near us
on the waves, sculled by a couple of yellow boys stark naked in the
rain. The craft approached us, I jumped into it, then through a little
trap-door shaped like a rat-trap that one of the scullers throws open
for me, I slipped in and stretched myself at full length on a mat in
what is called the "cabin" of a sampan.

There was just room enough for my body to lie in this floating coffin,
which is moreover scrupulously clean, white with the whiteness of new
deal boards. I was well sheltered from the rain, that fell pattering
on my lid, and thus I started off for the town, lying in this box,
flat on my stomach, rocked by one wave, roughly shaken by another, at
moments almost over-turned; and through the half-opened door of my
rat-trap I saw, upside down, the two little creatures to whom I had
entrusted my fate, children of eight or ten years of age at the most,
who, with little monkeyish faces, had however fully developed muscles
like miniature men, and were already as skillful as any regular old
salts.

* * * * *

They began to shout; no doubt we were approaching the landing-place.
And indeed, through my trap-door, which I had now thrown wide open, I
saw quite near to me the gray flag-stones on the quays. I got out of
my sarcophagus and prepared to set foot for the first time in my life
on Japanese soil.

All was streaming around us, and the irritating, tiresome rain dashed
into my eyes.

No sooner had I landed, than there bounded towards me about a dozen
strange beings, of what description it was almost impossible to make
out through the blinding showers--a species of human hedge-hog, each
dragging some large black thing; they came screaming around me and
stopped my progress. One of them opened and held over my head an
enormous closely-ribbed umbrella, decorated on its transparent surface
with paintings of storks; and they all smiled at me in an engaging
manner with an air of expectation.

I had been forewarned: these were only the _djins_ who were touting
for the honor of my preference; nevertheless I was startled at this
sudden attack, this Japanese welcome on a first visit to land (the
_djins_ or _djin-richisans_, are the runners who drag little carts,
and are paid for conveying people to and fro, being hired by the hour
or the distance, as cabs are with us).

Their legs were naked; to-day they were very wet, and their heads were
hidden under large shady conical hats. By way of waterproofs they wore
nothing less than mats of straw, with all the ends of the straws
turned outwards bristling like porcupines; they seemed clothed in a
thatched roof. They went on smiling, awaiting my choice.

Not having the honor of being acquainted with any of them in
particular, I choose at haphazard the djin with the umbrella and get
into his little cart, of which he carefully lowers the hood. He draws
an oil-cloth apron over my knees, pulling it up to my face, and then
advancing near, asks me in Japanese something which must have meant:
"Where to, sir?" To which I reply in the same language, "To the
_Garden of Flowers_, my friend."

I said this in the three words I had parrot-like learnt by heart,
astonished that such sounds could mean anything, astonished too at
their being understood. We started off, he running at full speed, I
dragged along by him, jerked about in his light chariot, wrapped in
oiled cloth, shut up as if in a box;--both of us unceasingly drenched
all the while, and dashing all around us the water and mud of the
sodden ground.

"To the _Garden of Flowers_," I had said, like an habitual frequenter
of the place, and quite surprised at hearing myself speak. But I was
less ignorant about Japan than might have been supposed. Many of my
friends had, on their return home from that country, told me about it,
and I knew a great deal; the _Garden of Flowers_ is a _tea-house_, an
elegant rendezvous. There, I would inquire for a certain
Kangourou-San, who is at the same time interpreter, washerman, and
confidential agent for the intercourse of races. Perhaps this very
evening, if all went well, I should be introduced to the bride
destined to me by mysterious fate. This thought kept my mind on the
alert during the panting journey we have been making, the djin and
myself, one dragging the other, under the merciless downpour.

* * * * *

Oh, what a curious Japan I saw that day, through the gaping of my
oil-cloth coverings! from under the dripping hood of my little cart! A
sullen, muddy, half-drowned Japan. All these houses, men or beasts,
hitherto only known to me by drawings; all these, that I had beheld
painted on blue or pink backgrounds of fans or vases, now appeared to
me in their hard reality, under a dark sky, with umbrellas and wooden
shoes, with tucked-up skirts and pitiful aspect.

At moments the rain fell so heavily that I tightly closed up every
chink and crevice, and the noise and shaking benumbed me, so that I
completely forgot in what country I was. In the hood of the cart were
holes, through which little streams ran down my back. Then,
remembering that I was going for the first time in my life through the
very heart of Nagasaki, I cast an inquiring look outside, at the risk
of receiving a douche: we were trotting along through a mean, narrow
little back street (there are thousands like it, a perfect labyrinth
of them) the rain falling in cascades from the tops of the roofs on
the gleaming flagstones below, rendering everything indistinct and
vague through the misty atmosphere. At times we passed by a lady,
struggling with her skirts, unsteadily tripping along in her high
wooden shoes, looking exactly like the figures painted on screens,
tucked up under a gaudily daubed paper umbrella. Or else we passed a
pagoda, where an old granite monster, squatting in the water, seemed
to make a hideous, ferocious grimace at me.

How immense this Nagasaki is! Here had we been running hard for the
last hour, and still it seemed never-ending. It is a flat plain, and
one could never suppose from the offing that so vast a plain could lie
in the recesses of this valley.

It would, however, have been impossible for me to say where I was, or
in what direction we had run; I abandoned my fate to my djin and to my
good luck.

What a steam-engine of a man my djin was! I had been accustomed to the
Chinese runners, but they were nothing by the side of this fellow.
When I part my oil-cloths to peep at anything, he is naturally always
the first object in my foreground: his two naked, brown, muscular
legs, scampering one after the other, splashing all around, and his
bristling hedgehog back bending low in the rain. Do the passers-by,
gazing at this little dripping cart, guess that it contains a suitor
in quest of a bride?

* * * * *

At last my vehicle stops, and my djin, with many smiles and
precautions lest any fresh rivers should stream down my back, lowers
the hood of the cart; there is a break in the storm, and the rain has
ceased. I had not yet seen his face; by exception to the general rule,
he is good-looking;--a young man of about thirty years of age, of
intelligent and strong appearance, and an open countenance. Who could
have foreseen that a few days later this very djin.--But no, I will
not anticipate, and run the risk of throwing beforehand any discredit
on Chrysantheme.

We had therefore reached our destination, and found ourselves at the
foot of a tall overhanging mountain; probably beyond the limits of the
town, in some suburban district. It apparently became necessary to
continue our journey on foot, and climb up an almost perpendicular
narrow path. Around us, a number of small country houses, garden
walls, and high bamboo palisades closed in the view. The green hill
crushed us with its towering height; the heavy, dark clouds lowering
over our heads seemed like a leaden canopy confining us in this
unknown spot; it really seemed as though the complete absence of
perspective inclined one all the better to notice the details of this
tiny corner, muddy and wet, of homely Japan, now lying before our
eyes. The earth was very red. The grasses and wild flowers bordering
the pathway were strange to me;--nevertheless, the palings were
covered with convolvuli like our own, and I recognized in the gardens,
china asters, zinnias, and other familiar flowers. The atmosphere
seemed laden with a curiously complicated odor, something besides the
perfume of the plants and soil, arising no doubt from the human
dwelling-places,--a mingled smell, I fancied, of dried fish and
incense. Not a creature was to be seen; of the inhabitants, of their
homes and life, there was not a vestige, and I might have imagined
myself anywhere in the world.

My djin had fastened up his little cart under a tree, and together we
clambered the steep path on the slippery red soil.

"We are going to the _Garden of Flowers_, are we not?" I inquired,
anxious to ascertain if I had been understood.

"Yes, yes," replied the djin, "it is up there, and quite near."

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12