The Sound of the Mountain
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Summary
Editor's review
In literary terms, The Sound of the Mountain extends and deepens the mono no aware aesthetic and the mood of yūgen that run through Kawabata's work. Compared with such masterpieces as Snow Country and Thousand Cranes, its tone is quieter and more introspective, with less of the intensity of youthful love and more meditation on the twilight of life. Kawabata uses almost documentary domestic trivia—family meals, his children's marriages and love affairs, reunions with old friends—as the vehicle for a fine mesh of memory, solitude, and the passage of time. His treatment of aging is not pessimistic but a serene contemplation and acceptance of the full cycle of life.
Tan Jinghua's translation, while faithfully conveying the mood of the original, also accommodates the reading habits of Chinese readers; the prose is fluent and elegant, preserving the restraint and suggestiveness characteristic of Kawabata's writing. The Hunan Literature and Art Publishing House edition is plainly and tastefully designed, in keeping with the spirit of the work.
For the reader, The Sound of the Mountain is less a story than a walk of the mind. It offers no strong plot conflicts, yet moves the reader through deep psychological truth and philosophical inquiry into life. It is best savored slowly in quiet hours, listening for the eternal echoes of existence, memory, and extinction beneath the words.
Who it's for
A good fit for
- Readers interested in postwar Japanese literature and the arc of Kawabata's career
- Literary readers who prefer introspective fiction with finely wrought psychological detail
- Readers who wish to think, through literature, about aging, death, and the meaning of life
- Readers who appreciate the mono no aware aesthetic and subtle symbolism
Not a good fit for
- Readers seeking fast-paced plots and strong dramatic conflict
- Readers who do not respond to domestic-ethical themes and the psychology of old age
Reading tips
- Read in a relatively quiet, undisturbed setting so as to enter the work's tranquil atmosphere
- Read alongside Kawabata's life and other major works (such as The Old Capital and House of the Sleeping Beauties) to trace the evolution of his style
- Pay attention to the symbolic role of “sound” (the mountain, rain, silence) and of the changing seasons in the novel
About the publisher
Hunan Literature and Art Publishing House is a publisher known for its literary titles, with a catalogue spanning foreign literature, world classics, classical Chinese literature, essays and miscellaneous writings, and mystery and detective fiction. Judging from the more than 1,100 books in the database, the press publishes foreign classics such as Crime and Punishment, Snow Country, The Complete Sherlock Holmes and Letter from an Unknown Woman, as well as Chinese classical and modern literary works including Lu Xun's Wandering and A Madman's Diary and Wu Jingzi's The Scholars. In terms of translators and authors, translations by Cao Guowei and Tan Jinghua appear in its foreign literature titles, and the authors involved include Dostoevsky, Kawabata Yasunari, Conan Doyle and Zweig. Its publishing character lies in introducing Chinese and foreign literary classics side by side, balancing popular and serious works and attending to both readability and literary value. Public information is limited; the above is a brief overview based solely on the books in the database.
Contents
- 版权信息
- 山之声
- 蝉之羽
- 云之炎
- 栗之果
- 岛之梦
- 冬之樱
- 晨之水
- 夜之声
- 春之钟
- 鸟之家
- 都之苑
- 伤后
- 雨中
- 蚊群
- 蛇蛋
- 秋鱼
- 译后记
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About the author
Kawabata Yasunari (1899–1972) was a Japanese novelist and a leading figure of the New Sensationist school, born in Osaka. A prolific writer, he is represented on this site by 147 works, spanning essays and miscellaneous prose as well as foreign literature. His representative works include The Izu Dancer, Snow Country, Thousand Cranes, and The Old Capital; Snow Country in particular exists in multiple editions and translations, a sign of its wide circulation. Kawabata is known for his delicate prose, which interweaves human emotion with natural scenery to express the spiritual character of the Japanese people, and often conveys a sense of the beauty of impermanence in life and death. In 1968 he received the Nobel Prize in Literature, an important landmark in the global recognition of Japanese literature; he died in 1972. Beyond his novels, his essays and miscellaneous writings also deserve attention.
Tan Jinghua was born in Shanghai in June 1951. He holds a doctorate in literature and is a professor and doctoral supervisor at Shanghai International Studies University, where he formerly served as executive vice president. He has long been engaged in the study and translation of modern Japanese literature. His publications include a biography of Kawabata Yasunari and A History of Modern Japanese Literature, and he has translated more than 140 major works of Japanese literature. His representative translations include Kawabata Yasunari's Snow Country, The Izu Dancer, The Old Capital, Thousand Cranes, and The Sound of the Mountain, as well as the Selected Works of Kawabata Yasunari and the four-volume Abe Kobo series, and Natsume Soseki's Light and Darkness. He is a former president of the Chinese Association for Japanese Literature and of the Shanghai Translators Association. His works are generally classified under essays and miscellaneous writings and foreign literature, and he has had a broad influence in the translation and introduction of modern and contemporary Japanese literature.
