Chapter 5 monkey

monkey Akutagawa Ryunosuke At that time, I had just finished my ocean voyage, and the young prostitute (the name for a cadet officer on a warship) was finally on the verge of becoming self-reliant.The No. A warship I was on sailed into the port of Yokosuka.On the afternoon of the third day, around three o'clock, there was a resounding sound of a trumpet calling for the assembly of those who went ashore.Remember it's the starboard side's turn to go ashore.Everyone had just lined up on the upper deck, and this time the trumpet for the assembly of the whole group suddenly sounded.Things are of course unusual.We, who didn't know the inside story, walked up to the hatch and said to each other: "What happened?"

After all assembled, the vice-captain said something like this: "...Recently there have been two or three cases of things being lost on the ship. In particular, two silver-cased pocket watches were lost when the watch shop in town came yesterday. Today we will conduct a physical examination of all the staff, and at the same time check their belongings..." This is the first time I heard about the watch shop, and we have already heard about people throwing things.A sergeant and two sailors were said to have lost money. Since it is to check the body.Everyone has to take off their clothes.Fortunately, at the beginning of October, the red buoys floating in the harbor were exposed to the scorching sun, making it look like summer, so it was nothing.What was embarrassing was that those partners who planned to go shopping as soon as they got ashore, after checking, they found spring paintings or something from their pockets, and it was too late to flush with embarrassment.Two or three seemed to have been beaten by the officer.

There are 600 people in total, and it takes a lot of time to check them all.What a spectacle.Six hundred men were undressed and drained the upper deck.Especially the engineers with swarthy faces and wrists. Because of this theft, they were once suspected of being stolen. Now they even took off their briefs and aggressively demanded a closer look. The upper deck is making upheaval, and the middle deck and lower deck have begun to check their belongings.A midshipman was sent to each hatch to stand guard, and of course the people on the upper deck couldn't get down a step.I happened to be in charge of the lower deck, so I went to check the sailor's bag and small box with other partners.It was the first time I did this kind of thing since I got on a warship. I had to touch the back of the beam and rummage through the shelf where the clothes bag was put. It was more troublesome than I imagined.Later, Makita, who was a trainee officer like me, found the stolen goods with great difficulty.The pocket watch and money were in the hat box of the signalman surnamed Narajima.Among them, it was said, was the pocketknife with the blue shell on the handle that the waiter had lost.

So he ordered "disbandment", and then asked "signal soldiers to gather".Don't mention how happy the other partners are.Especially the engineer soldiers who had been suspected were extremely happy.But after the signal soldiers assembled, they found that Nara Island was not there. I'm inexperienced and don't know anything about this stuff.It is said that in warships, sometimes the stolen goods are found but the prisoner cannot be caught.Of course, the prisoners had already committed suicide. Nine out of ten they hanged themselves in the coal storage, and almost no one jumped into the sea.However, the warship I was on heard that there were people who had their stomachs cut open with a knife, and they were discovered before they died, and they finally saved their lives.

Because of this, the news of Nara Island's disappearance seemed to startle the officers.Especially the panic of the deputy captain, I still remember it clearly.His face turned pale, and his worried expression looked ridiculous.He had been famous for his bravery during the last war.We looked at him, exchanged contemptuous glances, and thought: Why are you so panic-stricken when you usually talk about spiritual cultivation? The deputy captain gave an order, and we immediately searched the ship.I am afraid I am not the only one indulging in the pleasant excitement at this time.This is like watching the excitement when it is on fire.When the police go to arrest a prisoner, they inevitably have to worry that the other party will resist, but there will never be such a thing on a warship.There was a strict hierarchy between us and the sailors - only the military can know how clear the line is.For us, this is a huge battle.I ran down the hatch almost in glee.

Makita was also one of the partners who went down with me at this time. He patted me on the shoulder from behind excitedly and said, "Hey, I remembered that time I caught the monkey." "Well, today's monkeys are not that agile, don't worry." "Don't be careless and let him run away." "Zuo is just a monkey, just run away." We joked and walked down. The monkey was requested by the gunner in Brisbane when he sailed to Australia.During the voyage, two days before sailing into William Haven, it took the captain's watch and disappeared.As a result, the entire warship was turned upside down.On the one hand, it was also because everyone was bored during the long-distance voyage. Needless to say, the gunner himself, we didn’t even change our overalls. .Others begged and bought many animals.As we ran, we were stumbled by dogs, barked by gannets, and parrots flapped their wings like crazy in cages suspended by ropes. It was like a circus shed on fire.After a while, the monkey got out of nowhere, with the watch in its hand, and suddenly appeared on the upper deck, and suddenly wanted to climb up the mast.There happened to be two or three sailors working there, so of course it couldn't escape.One of them immediately grabbed it by the neck, and it was captured obediently.The watch is just broken glass, not much damage.Later, the gunner suggested that the monkey be punished for a two-day hunger strike.But how interesting, before the deadline, the gunner broke the penalty rules and fed the monkeys carrots and sweet potatoes himself.He also said: "Look at how dejected it is, even a monkey can't bear it."——To put it aside, the mood we felt when we went to Nara Island was indeed similar to the mood when we were chasing monkeys.

At that time, I was the first to go to the lower deck.As you probably know, the lower deck is always dark, with here and there a dim glow of well-polished metalwork and painted iron. - I feel a little out of breath, I can't stand it.Feeling in the dark, I walked two or three steps towards the coal storehouse, only to see a person's upper body protruding from the coal storehouse's coal loading port.I almost cried out.This man was drilling into the coal bank through this small opening, putting his feet in first.His face was hidden by the collar and cap of his dark blue sailor uniform, so he couldn't tell who it was from this side.Moreover, there was not enough light, so only the upper body could be seen dimly emerging.But I immediately felt that it was Nara Island.So, of course he entered the coal bank to commit suicide.

I'm so excited.This is an indescribably pleasant excitement, and the blood in my whole body seems to be boiling.This can also be said to be the mood of a hunter waiting with a gun when he sees his prey.I jumped at the man almost desperately, and put my hands on his shoulders with the agility of a hound. "Nara Island." My voice was shrill and trembling, and I couldn't tell if I was blaming him or scolding him.That person is, of course, the criminal Narajima. "..." Narajima did not let go of my hand. He peeked out half of his body from the coal opening and looked up at my face peacefully.The word "peace" alone is not enough to describe it.This is the kind of "peace" that has to be maintained despite exerting all its strength.He had no choice but to be forced to do nothing, just like a severed sail yard trying to return to its original position with the remaining strength after the storm passed.This is the kind of compulsive "peace".Since I didn't meet the kind of resistance I had expected, I inadvertently developed a feeling of similar dissatisfaction, so I felt more restless and angry, silently looking down at the face looking up at me "peacefully".

I never saw a face like that again.Even the devil would have cried if he had looked at such a face.You haven't really seen it, and I'm afraid it's hard for you to imagine it.I can probably describe his teary eyes to you.The muscles at the corners of his mouth twitched a few times as if they had suddenly turned into involuntary muscles, maybe you can guess this.And his sweaty, bad-faced countenance, too, was easy to describe.But the look of horror which put it all together, no novelist can express.I dare to say that in front of you, a novelist.I felt that his expression destroyed something in my heart like lightning.The signalman's face hit me so hard.

I mechanically asked him, "What do you want to do?" Somehow, it seemed to me that this "you" was referring to myself.If someone asked me: "What do you want to do?" How should I answer it?Who can answer with peace of mind: "I want to treat this person as a criminal." Who can see this face and say such a thing?Written in this way, the time seems to be quite long, but in fact, these thoughts of self-blame flashed through my mind in the blink of an eye.At this moment, I heard him say "too shameful", although the voice was not loud, I was very sad to hear it.

You might describe the situation as "it sounds like I said that to myself".I just felt that these words pierced my nerves like an injection.At that time, I really wanted to say "too shameful" with Nara Island, and bowed my head to something much greater than us.At some point, I let go of the hand that was pressing on Narajima's shoulder, as if I was a captured prisoner, and stood in front of the coal mine in a daze. The following things, I don't say anything, you can probably expect it.On that day, Nara Island was closed for a day.The next day, he was escorted to the Naval Prison in Uraga.One thing, I don't like to say, is that the prisoners are often called "carrying shells".That is to put iron balls weighing about 20 kilograms on two tables eight feet apart, and let the prisoners move them back and forth continuously.There is no more painful punishment for prisoners than this.I remember I borrowed Dostoevsky's "Notes on the House of the Dead" from you in the past. There is a sentence in it: "If the prisoner is forced to repeat unnecessary hard work many times, such as pouring water from bucket A to bucket B, the Dump it back from bucket B to bucket A, and that prisoner will kill himself." That's what prisoners in naval prisons do, and it's surprising that no one commits suicide.The signalman I caught was escorted there.He was freckled, short, and timidly honest. That evening, when I was leaning on the fence with other trainee officers and watching the twilight of the port, I came back to me and said in a teasing tone: "You have made a great contribution by catching the monkey alive." How proud of it. "Nara Island is for people, not monkeys!" I replied to him in a rough voice, and walked away from the railing. "You guys must think it's weird. Because Shuida and I were close friends when we were in the Naval Academy, and we never quarreled. I walked alone from the stern to the bow on the upper deck, recalling with relief how the vice-captain had panicked out of fear for the safety of Nara Island.When we regard the signalman as a monkey, only the deputy captain sympathizes with him as a human being.It was utterly foolish and outrageous that we should treat the mate with contempt.I was so ashamed that I couldn't bear it, and I lowered my head.Trying not to make the noise of my leather shoes, I turned back along the twilight upper deck from the bow to the stern.I think it would be too embarrassing for Narajima in the confinement room to hear the sound of energetic shoes. It is said that Nara Island was stolen for the sake of women.It is not known how long the sentence will be.At least he would have to squat in a dark cell for a few months.Monkeys are immune to punishment, but humans are not. (August 1916) translated by Wen Jieruo