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Cover of 葉 (Ha)

Upper intermediate · JLPT N2

葉Ha — Leaves, Still Green

by Dazai Osamu (太宰治, 1909–1948)

  • JLPT N2
  • 9,485 characters
  • 7 parts
  • about 79 minutes

葉 is less a single story than a collage: dozens of fragments, some only a line or two long, set side by side without explanation. A man who had meant to die decides to keep living until summer because someone gave him a summer kimono. From there the pieces drift between lonely drinking in lodgings, family memories, arguments about suicide and revolution, a police cell, a stray cat, and a foreign girl selling flowers on a foggy night at Nihonbashi. Embedded in the middle is 'Awarega', a story the narrator says he wrote at nineteen, about a grandmother, a wedding night and a ghost. The tone moves from wry to bleak to tender, often within a page. For learners, the challenge is the constant shifting. First and third person alternate. Plain literary narration gives way to classical lines, an antique gozaimasu style, a grandmother's archaic speech, a stretch of regional dialect, and simple katakana Japanese. The reward is that each fragment is short and self-contained, so you can read in small sittings. Many of them, like the girl at the bridge, are quietly moving once they click.

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Contents

  1. Fragments of a Man Who Meant to DieA man who had meant to die decides to live until summer after receiving a summer kimono as a New Year's gift. Loosely connected fragments follow: lonely drinking in lodgings, a stone that seems to crawl along a pavement, a younger brother overjoyed when his older brother pats his shoulder, and an older brother's views on fiction and suicide. The narrator then introduces 'Awarega', a story he wrote at nineteen, which opens with its speaker recalling a strange ghost seen in early childhood.
  2. A Wedding Night and a Beautiful GrandmotherThe narrator of 'Awarega' (The Pitiful Mosquito) recalls the night of an elder sister's wedding, when the house was full of geisha and Father wrestled with one of them in a dark corridor. The memory is dreamlike, except for Grandmother's eyes and a ghost. The narrator then describes Grandmother: a strikingly beautiful woman who never married, devoted herself to Tomimoto chanting, and doted on her grandchild, reading picture books aloud every night, including the tale of Yaoya Oshichi.
  3. The Mosquito Tale and Aoi's ExperimentsIn the old-fashioned story 'Awarega', the narrator recalls Grandmother's bedtime words about mosquitoes that survive into autumn, and a night of waking to see a white ghost peeping into the room of the narrator's sister and her new husband. Short fragments follow, including Machiko and a young man trading riddles about a flower and a tree whose leaves stay green until they fall. Finally, Kobayakawa recalls Aoi's earlier suicide attempt and how Aoi drank ditch water beside a hospital's infectious-disease ward, hoping to make himself like a castrated man so he could renounce sensual pleasure and devote himself to the struggle.
  4. Arguments for Living, and Other FragmentsKobayakawa scolds Aoi for claiming that useless people like them should simply die. He argues that even a small contribution to the proletariat makes a life worth living. Short fragments follow: a boy offended that his arithmetic book prints the answers, an aunt's backhanded advice, a man who lets go of a drowning woman who then cries another man's name, and a writer's request for a headless statue.
  5. Cell Window, Mountain Wedding, Fading BridgeIn separate fragments, the narrator watches policemen drilling under blossoming pear trees from a police cell. At a wedding with no prospects held at a mountain hot spring, his unschooled mother laughs and lectures the couple. A man spends three years educating his wife and then thinks of dying. A speaker in hometown dialect describes a mountain fire. A stray cat takes a sardine from the narrator, who thinks his love has been accepted, and then bites his finger to the bone. The passage ends with the history of the once-grand, now faded Nihonbashi bridge.
  6. The Flower Girl on NihonbashiOn a foggy December night, a foreign girl stands alone at the foot of Nihonbashi with a bunch of flowers. Most Japanese would simply write her off as a White Russian, but one person might wonder why she chose this dim, quiet bridge: her parents had imagined it to be the finest bridge in Japan. She sells one flower on each of the first two days and none on the third. A beggar on crutches confronts her about his territory, and she goes to eat wonton at a Chinese stall, where the owner treats her like any other customer.
  7. A Flower for the Stall OwnerThe Chinese stall owner, moved to learn the foreign flower girl is going home, treats her to a more expensive char siu wonton, and she gives him one of her flowers in return. Afterwards she regrets having handed out wilting flowers and crouches by the road to pray that they will bloom. Fragments follow: a man in a gloomy period who wants to write a lulling romance and reads about the poet Sappho and her unrequited love for Phaon, a short poem about his face reflected in tea bubbles, and a final shrug that things will work out somehow.

Before you read

  • Treat each fragment as a fresh start. Blank lines often signal a new speaker, a new time and a new point of view, so don't try to force connections between neighbouring pieces on a first read.
  • In 'Awarega', expect polite archaic forms such as 〜ございます and 違いございませぬ (an old form of 〜に違いない). The grandmother's speech uses わし, じゃ and ぞえ. Read these as a single old-fashioned register rather than decoding each ending.
  • Learn 〜得る (read える or うる, 'can / is possible') and 〜（よ）うと思う first. Both recur in the narrator's reflections on living and dying. Also watch for 〜たいばかりに ('just because one wanted to'), 〜たびごとに ('every time') and 〜かねる ('cannot bring oneself to').
  • In the Nihonbashi episode, the flower girl and the stall owner speak simple katakana Japanese. That makes this one of the easiest stretches in the text and a good place to build confidence.
  • Don't stall on the classical one-liners (うぬが誇をかすめとらむ, 水到りて渠成る) or the dialect passage about the mountain fire. Get the gist from the notes and keep moving, because the surrounding fragments don't depend on them.

Words to know

The most useful words from the notes across the story.

WordMeaningJLPT
祝言しゅうげんwedding ceremonyOld-fashioned word for 結婚式.—
果敢なくはかないfleeting, transient; vain, faint (of a hope). 果敢なくも願う = to wish forlornly, in vaindictionary form: 儚いUsually written 儚い; 果敢ない is an old phonetic spelling.N1
貢献こうけんcontributionUsed as 〜への貢献 or 〜に貢献する.N3
覗いているのぞくto peep, to peer intodictionary form: 覗くN2
迷信めいしんsuperstitionN2
反たんcounter for bolts of cloth (enough for one kimono)一反 is read いったん.N1
欺かれたあざむくto deceive, to fooldictionary form: 欺くHere in the passive: 'was fooled'.N1
幽霊ゆうれいghostN1
粋いきchic, refined, worldly-wiseA key Edo aesthetic ideal.N1
不憫ふびんpity, compassion; pitiableOften used in the phrase 不憫に思う, 'to feel sorry for'.N1
無礼ぶれいrude; impoliteA stronger, stiffer word than 失礼.N1
費やしたついやすto spend (time, effort, money)dictionary form: 費やすN1
なつかなかったなつくto become attached to; to grow tamedictionary form: 懐くUsed of animals and children warming to someone.N1
振りだしふりだしstarting point (of a board game)dictionary form: 振り出し振り出しに戻る means 'back to square one'.N1
すたれてすたれるto fall out of use; to fadedictionary form: 廃れるN1

Plot summary

Show the full summary (contains spoilers)

A man who meant to die decides to live until summer after receiving a summer kimono. Fragments follow: drinking alone, a stone that seems to crawl, a younger brother's joy when his brother pats his shoulder. The narrator presents 'Awarega', written at nineteen. In it, a speaker recalls an elder sister's wedding night, a beautiful unmarried grandmother who read picture books aloud, and a white ghost peering into the newlyweds' room. Kobayakawa recalls Aoi's suicide attempt and argues him out of wanting to die. More fragments include a police cell, a hot-spring wedding, and a cat that bites the narrator to the bone. A foreign girl sells flowers at Nihonbashi. A Chinese stall owner, moved to hear she is going home, treats her to the pricier char siu wonton, and she gives him a flower. Later she prays her wilting flowers will bloom. The piece closes with a man reading about Sappho, a short poem about tea bubbles, and a shrug that things will work out somehow.

About the author

Dazai Osamu (太宰治) was the pen name of Tsushima Shūji, born into a wealthy landowning family in Aomori Prefecture in northern Japan. He studied French literature at Tokyo Imperial University but did not graduate, devoting himself instead to writing. He is best known for the novels The Setting Sun (斜陽) and No Longer Human (人間失格), which draw heavily on his own troubled life. Much of his work is dark and confessional. Keep Running, Melos shows a brighter, more straightforwardly heroic side of his writing. He died by suicide in 1948.

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