The Golden Country Read Free Page A

think so?
    HIRATA: I was twenty once. Like you, I'd just entered the bureau. I still knew how to trust people. But as I was just telling Inoue, fifteen years of suspecting and examining people have had their effect. The grime of the job has seeped into my soul, habit has become nature. And now I'm as you find me. Gennosuke, you'll be like me someday.
He laughs.
    GENNOSUKE: I don't want to be like you.
    HIRATA: Everyone feels that way in his youth. But it's not so easy. It's not so easy.
He pauses.
    HIRATA: But to change the subject, I believe Inoue has been urging you to find yourself a wife.
    GENNOSUKE: Yes, he's been so kind as to suggest this.
    HIRATA (sarcastically): Yes, of course. He's very solicitous, even for the young.
    GENNOSUKE: Yes. I appreciate it.
    HIRATA: What kind of bride will you look for?
    GENNOSUKE: What?
    HIRATA: I asked you what kind of bride you wanted. Are you too embarrassed to answer?
    GENNOSUKE: I've never thought about it.
    HIRATA: That's a lie. There's no youth of twenty that doesn't spend most of his time dreaming of the girl he'll possess.
    GENNOSUKE: I'm not that kind of man.
    HIRATA: Is that so? Then close your eyes. Even as we're speaking, the woman you'll spend your life with is somewhere to be found. Perhaps even here in Nagasaki.
    GENNOSUKE: You're making fun of me.
    HIRATA: Not at all. I'm not making fun of you. When I was twenty, that's all I thought about too. This girl who will be your wife—isn't she already in your heart? I can even guess what she is doing at this very moment.
    GENNOSUKE (led on by Hirata): What is she doing at this moment?
    HIRATA: She's taking a crap. No, no, forgive me. I'm foul-mouthed. When one gets to be my age, one falls into the habit of soiling beautiful things. I'm foul. Don't you agree?
He laughs.
    HIRATA: But, seriously, tell me, what kind of girl do you want?
    GENNOSUKE: My mother and I are all alone. I would like a good-natured wife that will be good to my mother.
    HIRATA: A very proper answer indeed. This manner of speaking should get you far in the world. Do you mean to say that as long as she's good-natured, it doesn't matter to you if she's pretty or not?
Gennosuke mutters something inaudible.
    HIRATA: I can't hear you.
    GENNOSUKE: If she's pretty, it's all the better.
    HIRATA: Then why didn't you say so in the first place? Do you have any notion why one of the head samurai of the Omura clan is here today?
    GENNOSUKE: Not the slightest. Do you know why he's here?
    HIRATA: Of course I do. These eyes see through everything that goes on at the bureau. This nose smells out everything that men try to hide. Otherwise I could never get the better of the crafty Christians. Just a moment ago you expressed some very lofty sentiments. But I have a clear picture of what's really in your heart.
    GENNOSUKE: There's nothing there to embarrass me were it known.
    HIRATA: I wonder.
He sniffs around Gennosuke.
    HIRATA: You have a smell. You have a smell.
    GENNOSUKE: You're carrying your game a little too far.
    HIRATA (as if speaking to himself): No, the smell is all mine! Even I was once as young as you and reached out to the stars and dreamed great dreams. I can recall a winter morning when I walked aimlessly along the streets of Nagasaki and Maruyama, enraptured by the falling snow that purified the world about me. And an autumn sunset when I stood on Shian Bridge and sighed again and again the name of the girl I loved—which, incidentally, was the same name as the one you hold so tenderly in your heart, Yuki. What's the matter? When I mentioned her name, your face turned as red as autumn leaves.
Gennosuke hurries offstage as if in flight. Tomonaga Sakuemon enters.
    TOMONAGA: As usual, hard at work, I suppose.
    HIRATA: Oh, it's you. I was just reminiscing with Gennosuke. I was telling him about the days long ago when I'd just entered the bureau. I guess that's a certain sign of age—when you start talking to the young about the past.
He laughs.
    HIRATA: I'm not so