I am a literary giant in Japan

"Hello, Mr. George, it's our first meeting. Thank you for your kindness.

I have to say, your Japanese is as good as that of a local in Tokyo."

Kitagawa Hide and Yumeko smiled at the old man in the suit, answered each other's names, and took the opportunity to boast about his fluent Japanese.

The old man in the suit looked to be at least seventy years old, but he was full of energy and vigor. Moreover, at that age, he could speak fluent Japanese, which was simply incredible.

It was the name George Seferis, and Kitagawa Hide always felt like he had heard it somewhere.

"Kitagawa Hide?" The old man in the suit who was smiling happily just now immediately stopped smiling after hearing Kitagawa Hide's name, and repeatedly confirmed with him in Japanese several times.

"Yes, Hide Kitagawa." Hide Kitagawa nodded.

“There seem to be a lot of people named Kitagawa Hide in Japan.”

Old man George paused, and looked at the young couple in front of him again and again, and finally couldn't help but confirm it again.
"To be on the safe side, Mr. Kitagawa, I would like to ask you, you and the famous Kitagawa Hide in the Japanese literary world should not be the same person, right?"

"If you were to talk about the most famous Kitagawa Hide in the Japanese literary world, the old gentleman would probably be referring to me."

Beichuan Xiu raised his eyebrows slightly and finally remembered the other person's identity.

George Safilis is a famous Greek poet. His father is a law professor at a Greek university. He also graduated from the law department of a Greek university. During World War II, he went into exile abroad with the government. During this period, he also went to study in Japan. He was a close friend of many celebrities who studied in Japan during that period.

No wonder he speaks Japanese so fluently, he must have practiced it at that time.

George Ceferis's "Memory 1 - The Sea Is No Longer There" is a shining pearl in Greek poetry.

He also won the 1963 Nobel Prize in Literature for this collection of modern poetry.

The Swedish Academy of Literature at that time gave him a very high evaluation in the field of literary poetry: "His outstanding lyric poetry is the product of his profound feeling for Greek culture."

"One Hundred Years of Solitude, The Old Man and the Sea?" When he heard Kitagawa Hide introduce himself, the calm old man George suddenly lost his composure.

He looked at Kitagawa Hide, his eyes wide open, eagerly waiting for Kitagawa Hide's reply.

"Yes. These are new works I wrote this year." Kitagawa Hide smiled and nodded again.

"Oh my God, it's really you!"

George Seferis went from being surprised to being ecstatic. He came up and shook Kitagawa Hide's hand enthusiastically, and began to brag about his several novels that had become very popular overseas.

Like George Severis, most overseas readers are not very interested in the Japanese pure literature novels written by Hideo Kitagawa, but they worship the three volumes of "One Hundred Years of Solitude" as if they were gods.

"Three months ago, Greek University finally introduced your book The Little Prince, Mr. Kitagawa. It's hard to imagine that the person who wrote such a novel full of childlike innocence and irony is the same person who wrote such a heavy historical novel as One Hundred Years of Solitude!"

George Seferis loudly praised several of Kitagawa Hide's works, and because he was very recognizable in Athens, he quickly attracted a crowd of onlookers.

Seeing that more and more readers came to ask for autographs, they had to make an appointment to meet in the VIP room in the theater later, and then quickly escape through two VIP channels respectively.

"I didn't expect that my dear is so famous in Athens!" Mengzi hugged Beichuan Tetsu, smiled, then raised Tetsu's little hand and whispered,

"Little Archer, when you grow up, you must be as good as your father~"

"Haha, I just hope he won't be as naughty as I was when I was a child." Kitagawa Hide glanced at his "wise but foolish" son.

At present, it seems that Toru Kitagawa has not inherited his childhood mischievousness. Instead, the little girl Kitagawa Midori sometimes looks more like him when she gets crazy, and not like her quiet and virtuous mother at all.

"Eh? Honey, were you very naughty when you were little?" Mengzi tilted her head. The two were childhood sweethearts. She always thought that Kitagawa Hide was quite aloof since he was a child. He was a recognized aloof male god in the school.

Good-looking, quiet and rich.

Kitagawa Hide was actually thinking about his past life. He realized that he had let something slip, so he laughed it off and said, "I was quite naughty in kindergarten, but I got better as I grew up."

Before Mengzi could continue asking, he took her hand and went to the VIP room they had booked.

George Severis, who was alone, arrived at the VIP room earlier than them and sat down with a glass of wine, waiting for the performance of "Oedipus Rex" to begin.

Kitagawa Hide and the other person sat down. He asked Yumeko to take care of the two little ones, while he continued to chat with George Cefils about poetry writing and this year's Nobel Prize in Literature.

"Humph! These idiots are really going backwards! I can understand why you didn't give the award to Mr. Kitagawa for your "The Dancing Girl of Izu" last year.

After all, this is a novel with a more Japanese style, which is a bit too difficult for most Western readers to adapt to.

But "One Hundred Years of Solitude", "Remembrance of Things Past" and "The Old Man and the Sea", any one of which is enough for a writer to win the Nobel Prize, but they didn't even nominate you, which is really stupid!"

As a former Nobel Prize winner in literature and the "number one in the world" in the field of Greek poetry, no one dared to refute or criticize George Saeferius when he said this.

Kitagawa Hide smiled and shook his head, indicating that he didn't care much about this.

He told the public about this when he failed to win the Akutagawa Prize.

“It is the work that will live on, not the award.”

What he was disgusted with were the Arnault couple who controlled the Arnault Club and a group of so-called literary elites who aided and abetted them.

But since they insisted on inviting him to Stockholm to attend the awards ceremony, Kitagawa Hide didn't mind playing with them to the end.

On the other hand, seeing that Kitagawa Hide was so young but had such a thorough understanding of such things and was even more tolerant than many famous writers, George Sefilis smiled with relief and felt that he had indeed pursued the right person.

Kitagawa Hide is a qualified and high-quality idol!
"A few months ago, Yale University held a grand 'Literary and Art Exchange and Seminar Festival'. I heard that at the internal seminar, the initiator Paul Deman criticized a bunch of old guys who were not optimistic about you.

Just thinking about it, I feel that such a scene must be very spectacular.

Unfortunately, I was teaching at a Greek university at the time and was unable to attend the event in person."

Before the play began, George Severis talked about the grand seminar initiated by Paul DeMann, his two beloved disciples Olivia and Victoria, and the Skull and Bones Society.

From George Severis, Kitagawa Hide finally pieced together the fragmented information, and only then did he learn that the symposium had actually caused such a great impact on the Western literary world!
"Those professors at Yale University are smarter than politicians. Oh no, they are actually American politicians.

Anyway, the symposium was so successful that it will definitely be held next year. Hehe, those old guys in the United States are all "thugs" who want the Pulitzer Prize to replace the Nobel Prize in Literature. The Nobel Prize award ceremony next month is exciting just thinking about it. It's a pity that Mr. Kitagawa, you won't attend it, right?"

Next month, George Seferis' work at the Greek University will be completely finished. With a lot of free time, he, who loves to join in the fun, will definitely not miss this good show.

After chatting for a while, he found that the famous poet opposite him was actually a cute and naughty old man. Kitagawa Hide chuckled and replied, "I will attend, Mr. George."

"What?! Are you still going to participate?" George looked at him in surprise, and then corrected the first impression of Kitagawa Hide that had just formed in his mind.

This young man's demeanor is even greater than he imagined!

"Of course I will. They are the ones who are rude, not me. There is an old saying in a certain big country in the East, 'If you don't do anything wrong, you don't have to worry about ghosts knocking on your door.'

I am a decent person, I walk the right path, why should I be afraid of them? "

Kitagawa Hide nodded.

George Severis looked at him and admired the young writer from the bottom of his heart.

If it were him, if he didn't get the Nobel Prize he deserved and was deliberately insulted by others, he would definitely not be able to swallow this.

Whether in terms of cultivation, literary accomplishment, or insights and conversation, Kitagawa Hidetoshi gave off a feeling that was completely inconsistent with his age.

The mountains stand tall.

This was George Severis's assessment of him after a conversation.

George Seferis was about to say something when the lights downstairs suddenly dimmed and the actors officially came on stage and the show began.

The three of them tacitly stopped talking, and Mengzi also asked the two little guys to sit still and stop walking around and crawling around.

The Royal Theatre of Greece was built at great expense of the Athens government. The theatre was first established in 1880 and has been renovated three times. It has stood for hundreds of years and is one of the landmark buildings in Athens.

On the huge stage, the lights gradually brightened, the dancers with their makeup on came on stage one by one, and a powerful narration gradually sounded.

The play "Oedipus Rex" is a hit drama created for drama fans from all over the world. The dialogues are all in English, so Hideo Kitagawa and Yumeko can understand it clearly.

Since the two little ones could crawl and talk, Kitagawa Hide asked Yumeko to teach them various languages. Seeing them imitating several drama actors, George Sefilis on the side laughed out loud.

The entire play lasts three hours and is divided into three acts, clearly showing the glorious life of King Oedipus.

In Act I, Oedipus is born. His father, King Laius of Thebes, learns from an oracle that Oedipus will kill his father and marry his mother when he grows up, so he pierces his heel with a wire and orders a servant to throw the baby into the wilderness.

The servant took pity on the innocent child and gave him to a shepherd in Corinth.

The king of Corinth adopted him because he had no son.

As an adult, when Oedipus learned from the gods that he was destined to kill his father and marry his mother, he fled Corinth in order to avoid the doom foretold by the gods, because he thought the king and queen of Corinth were his biological parents.

But Oedipus never expected that it was this deliberate avoidance that accelerated the pace of his life tragedy.

In Act II, after Oedipus leaves his adoptive parents, he heads towards the city of Thebes.

On the way, he was humiliated by a group of passers-by and killed four people in anger, including his biological father, the elderly King Laius of Thebes, who was on a secret visit.

Not long after, Oedipus used his extraordinary intelligence to get rid of the Sphinx, the human-faced sphinx that was endangering the people of Thebes. He was hailed as king by the people of Thebes, and married the queen of the former king, his biological mother, and had two children with her.

Oedipus thus became a sinner who killed his father and married his mother, but he himself was completely unaware of it.

In the third act, in order to quell the plague in Thebes, Oedipus follows the instructions of the gods and searches for the murderer of the former king Laius. He finds out that the murderer is himself.

At this point, Oedipus despairingly discovered that the fate of killing his father and marrying his mother had finally befallen him.

Oedipus' mother Jocasta committed suicide in grief to cleanse herself of her sins.

In a state of mixed emotions, Oedipus blinded himself, then exiled himself and wandered around with his two daughters away from Thebes to punish himself for his heinous crime.

The drama came to an end with the magnificent symphony, as Jocasta, played by the famous Greek actress Katina Paxino, hanged herself, and Oedipus and his two daughters wandered.

After the big red curtain fell, all the audience stood up and applauded, including Kitagawa Hide and others in the VIP room.

"This is such an excellent drama. No matter how many times you watch it, it is always so memorable.

Mr. Kitagawa, you are absolutely right. Only tragedy can show the horror of fate and the precious humanity of weak humans who still stand up and resist when facing fate. "

George Seferis turned his head to look at him, only to find that Kitagawa Hide was lost in thought.

Kitagawa Hide had heard Yumeko talk about this drama before, and later he looked for the corresponding script and observed the details.

But at this moment, seeing with my own eyes many actors and actresses bringing it to life and bringing it to life perfectly, the impact is something that cannot be achieved with words.

Because of this, he had a completely new understanding of Oedipus Rex.

This masterpiece of drama also reminded Kitagawa Hide of another masterpiece of Haruki Murakami lying in the "literary arsenal" in his mind:

"Kafka on the Shore".

At this moment, he was extremely excited, and the tragic, lamentable and respectable life of King Oedipus kept echoing in his mind.

With his desire to create growing, Kitagawa Hide decided to go back and carefully conceive a "Kafka on the Shore" that would suit his needs.

He remembered that this work by the great Murakami was not only his "last glory", but also the last masterpiece that successfully went overseas and caused a sensation in the literary world around the world.

After that, "Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage" and "The City and Its Uncertain Wall" were both box office hits but had poor reputations.

Since I want to give the Arnaults a slap in the face for disgusting me, I'd like to start with "Kafka on the Shore", which won the World Fantasy Award and the Franz Kafka Award. (End of this chapter)