Winter Sleep

Contents Cover Title Page Copyright Contents Chapter One: The Guest Chapter Two: The Colors of Fall Chapter Three: Tearing Chapter Four: Cutting Lines Chapter Five: The Visit Chapter Six: The Color of Ice Chapter Seven: Chrysalis Chapter Eight: Buds of Spring Chapter Nine: Far Flames Landmarks Cover Cover Table of Content Start Title Page Copyright Print Page List i ii iii 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Copyright © 2004 by Kenzo Kitakata
 All rights reserved.
 Published by Vertical,
 an imprint of Kodansha USA Publishing, LLC
 Originally published in Japanese as Fuyu no nemuri by Gentosha, Tokyo, 1996.
 ISBN 1932234136
 Ebook ISBN 9781647292478
 Kodansha USA Publishing, LLC
 451 Park Avenue South, 7th Floor
 New York, NY 10016
 www.kodansha.us
 a_prh_6.0_142549201_c0_r1
 
 
 
 CONTENTS
 Chapter One: The Guest
 Chapter Two: The Colors of Fall
 Chapter Three: Tearing
 Chapter Four: Cutting Lines
 Chapter Five: The Visit
 Chapter Six: The Color of Ice
 Chapter Seven: Chrysalis
 Chapter Eight: Buds of Spring
 Chapter Nine: Far Flames
 
 
 Chapter One
 The Guest
 1
 The colors were floating. I had that same thought every day, looking out the window, running on the mountain path. Every day, the same.
 They were the colors of fall. In another month, they would disappear. Then would come the colors of winter, which would not float, but stab. Somehow, I couldn’t get used to the fall colors. When I looked at the Japanese larches in the full, clear light of a fall dusk, I was gripped by a fear I couldn’t put my finger on. I felt as though I had stumbled into a place with no way out. It was like listening to fingernails scratch across smooth hard glass. Or worse—it was like grasping at emptiness.
 I kept telling myself these were not real colors. But they existed, created by the slanting sunlight. They were the colors of living trees, just before the sleep of winter, colors of a season that enveloped the mountains.
 I hadn’t seen fall colors in such abundance for a long time. For the past three years I had only known fall from the morning and evening chill, from the color of the sky and the look of the flowers in the garden.
 After running up the mountain pass, I stretched for three minutes, then headed back down to the cabin where I was staying. Fifteen minutes up, ten down. At first it had taken me an hour and half, stopping again and again for breath. Now I didn’t think about increasing the distance or shortening the time. For the past four days I had been running at the same pace.
 When I ran, I tried to look only at my feet. I knew I was surrounded by the fall colors, but the colors of the earth put me more at ease. The colors of the earth never changed with the seasons.
 In front of the cabin I stretched again, then went in the door, which was never locked. The owner called it a “cabin,” but it was bigger than the name indicated. The bath, especially, was large—three adults could fit comfortably inside. It was filled from a hot spring, and when you turned the tap, hot water came out.
 I soaked in the hot springs bath in the evening. After my morning run I only took a shower. I threw my bath towel and sweaty running clothes into the washing machine. My clothes for the day were all ready, washed and neatly folded.
 Having put on corduroy pants and a turtleneck sweater, I slipped on a jacket and got in the car. Eating lunch after my run was part of my daily routine.
 The car was a used subcompact that I had bought for 300,000 yen. It was perfect for the narrow mountain roads. About once every four days I went shopping for breakfast food. Breakfast was the only meal I made.
 I usually ate soba noodles, spaghetti or curry rice for lunch. I decided to go with curry rice. Only ten minutes from the cabin by car were several restaurants on the highway where I could get a light meal.
 “Will you shut yourself in all winter too?” asked the manager of the curry shop, by now an acquaintance. He seemed to believe that I was a resort villa