Review: 'The Siren's Lament' by Jun'Ichirō Tanizaki (谷崎 潤一郎), trans. by Bryan Karetnyk
Pub. Date: 26 September 2023
Publisher: Pushkin Press
Featuring “The Qilin,” “The Siren’s Lament,” and the novella Killing O-Tsuya, this gorgeous new edition of 3 classic works translated by Bryan Karetnyk distills the essence of Jun'ichirō Tanizaki's shorter fiction: the co-mingling of Japanese and Chinese mythologies, the chillingly dark side of desire, and the paper-thin line between the sublime and the depraved.
- “The Qilin”: The sage Confucius travels to a kingdom ruled by a struggling duke, whose pursuit of virtue is threatened by his consort's obsession desire for pleasure.
- Killing O-Tsuya: A naïve servant elopes with his master's daughter, only to be plunged headlong into a world of murder and corruption.
- “The Siren’s Lament”: Exhausted by a lifestyle of never-ending debauchery, a young prince finds himself in possession of a dazzling, beguiling mermaid.
The essential short works of one of the most important and widely-read figured in modern Japanese literature, author of hugely popular works including In Praise of Shadows, The Makioka Sisters, and Naomi; renowned for his investigations of family dynamics, eroticism, and cultural identity.
The Siren's Lament features two short stories and one novella. The first story, 'The Qilin', takes its inspiration from Chinese mythology and history, focusing on the travels of the sage Confucius. He encounters a duke who has been tricked into lasciviousness by his evil wife, Nanzi. Through Confucius' teachings, he becomes a good and just ruler, until the wife gets involved and reveals a fantasy of perverse and titillating cruelty. Can the duke resists? (You get exactly one guess.) Next comes the novella, 'Killing O-Tsuya'. Although its title might be considered a spoiler, this is a story of a young man, Shinsuke, and woman, O-Tsuya, who decide to elope, becoming ever more corrupted in the process. Set in Edo (now Tokyo), this story plays with the imagery of geishas, warlords, gambling, and murder and it is very evocative in places. The collection closes with 'The Siren's Lament', a story about an extravagant prince whom nothing can please until a Dutch sailor sells him a mermaid. This too is a story of debauchery and desire, but with its more fairytale-like atmosphere it also carries something of a moral.
In the introduction to these stories, we are told that Jun'Ichirō Tanizaki pushes the boundaries of what is polite, exploring the depths of humanity's depravity and sensual longings, and so when I got started on the stories I was somewhat preparing myself to be disturbed. Instead, I read three stories about women, the damned creatures, being the downfall of men who might otherwise have been good and pure. That's not really exploring anything, that's placing blame. I do appreciate that this was more in vogue around the time he initially wrote these stories, i.e. between 1910 and 1920. It is undeniable, however, that Jun'Ichirō Tanizaki had an absolute knack for atmosphere and imagery. Whether it is Nanzi's vision of pleasure reminiscent of Hellraiser, Shinsuke's seeming descent into madness, or the mermaid in The Siren's Lament, the writing is so precise that I could picture exactly what Jun'Ichirō wanted me to. For that, I am definitely on board to read more by him, in the hopes he moved beyond "woman is a demon" in his later writing years.
I give this collection...
3 Universes!
The Siren's Lament is a small collection, but it picks some intriguing works from Jun'Ichirō Tanizaki's early writing career. I think it makes for a good introduction to his writing style, which is stunning.
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