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Kokoro Natsume Soseki (Part 1 / The Teacher and I) 8

Fortunately, the teacher's prophecy did not come true. Being inexperienced at the time, I did not understand even the obvious significance contained in this prophecy. I still went to see him. Before I knew it, I was eating at his table. As a natural consequence, I also had to speak with his wife.

 As a normal human being, I was not indifferent towards women. However, given my young age and the circumstances in which I had been living, I had never been in a relationship with a woman. I doubt if this was the reason, but my interest was always directed towards women I did not know, whom I met on the street. I had the impression that the doctor's wife was beautiful when I met her at the door. Since then, I have not failed to get the same impression every time I meet her. But other than that, I felt I had nothing else to say about her in particular.

 This might be more justified in interpreting this as a lack of opportunity to show his wife's features rather than a lack of features. However, I always treated her as if she were a part of my teacher. It seems that she also treated me favourably because I was a student coming to her husband's place. So if you take away the teacher who stood in the middle, the two of us were separated. So when I first made her acquaintance, I had no other impression of her than that she was beautiful.

 One time I was given a drink at the teacher's house. His wife came out and poured me a drink at his side. He seemed more amused than usual. He said to his wife, "You too, have one" and offered her the cup he had drunk out of. His wife almost declined, saying 'I'm ......', then accepted it with annoyance. His wife raised a beautiful eyebrow and took my half-filled cup to the tip of her lips. The conversation below began between the wife and the teacher.

'A rare thing. It's not often that you tell me to drink."

'Because I don't like you. But you should have a drink now and then. It makes you feel good."

'Not at all. "Not at all. I'm in a bad mood. But you look very happy, and you've had a few drinks."

'It can be very amusing at times. But not always."

How about tonight?"

I feel good tonight."

From now on you should eat a little every night."

'It doesn't work that way.'

'Please eat it. It's better that way you won't be lonely."

 The teacher's home was just the couple and their servant. Whenever I went there, it was usually quiet. There was never a sound of high-pitched laughter.

At one point it felt like the only ones in the house were the teacher and me.

'I hope you have children,' his wife turned to me. 'Yes,' I replied. But no sympathy arose in my heart. I had never had children and at that time I thought of them as just a noisy thing.

'I'll take one of you,' said the teacher.

'You're not a child, are you?' she said, turning to me again.

'The child won't be able to do it forever,' said the teacher.

 His wife was silent. When I asked her why, she laughed uproariously and said, "Because it's damnation."

Previous (7).

Continued (9)


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*This article has been automatically translated.