Kappa by Ryunosuke Akutagawa

Author:Ryunosuke Akutagawa [Akutagawa, Ryunosuke]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fantasy, Fiction
Publisher: The Hokuseido Press
Published: 2013-01-02T05:00:00+00:00

IX

But Gael, president of the glass manufacturing company, was certainly an amiable kappa. I often went with him to the club of which he was a member and spent a pleasant evening. I felt much more at home there than at the Super-kappas' Club to which Tock belonged. Gael was not much of a thinker as Mag the philosopher was, but he opened my eyes to a world entirely unknown to me—a world wide and strange. He always chatted in good spirits, stirring his coffee with a gold spoon.

One very foggy evening, I was listening to Gael with a vase of winter roses between us. The room was of Secessionist style, if I remember aright, and was furnished with white tables and chairs with thin gold borders. Gael looked more self-complacent than usual, and with a bright smile all over his face talked about the Quorax Cabinet then in power.

Quorax ' is only a meaningless interjection like Oh.' But it was the name of a political party whose primary concern was supposed to be the promotion of the welfare of the kappa race.

"The Quorax Party is under the control of Loppé," said Gael. “As you know, he is a famous kappa statesman. Bismarck said that honesty is the best diplomacy, but Loppé is honest not only in his diplomacy but also in his management of home affairs ....."

"But that speech of Loppe's—"

"Come now, just listen. That speech of his is of course a lie, every bit of it. 'But as everybody knows that it is a lie, it is an honest speech after all, isn't it? No one but you and your countrymen will call it a lie simply because it is a lie. We kappas do not—well, it doesn't matter. What I am going to tell you is about Loppe. He leads the Quorax Party as I said just now, but behind him is another kappa who is pulling the wires. It is Quiqui, President of the Pou-Fou."

'Pou-Fou,' which is the name of a newspaper, also is a meaningless interjection, and the only Japanese equivalent I can think of is 'Ah.'

"But," Gael went on, “even Quiqui hasn't the right to call himself his own master, because he is under my control."

"Under your control? But I understand that the Pou-Fou is a friend of the labor classes, isn't it? How is it that Quiqui, its president, should be under your control?"

"The kappas on the Pou-Fou are of course friends of laborers," replied the capitalist. “But they've got to obey Quiqui who is their master. And Quiqui can't get along without my support."

Gael was playing with his solid gold spoon, smiling good-naturedly. I said nothing. He made me feel sorry for the poor Pou-Fou kappas rather than hate him. But my silence seemed to have betrayed my feeling, for, swelling his big belly, he said:

"But all the Pou-Fou kappas are not the friends of laborers. After all, we kappas love ourselves more than we love anybody else.—Well, Quiqui is under my

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