——the Nobel Lecture in 1994 (Excerpted)
Kenzaburo Oe
[1] During the last catastrophic World War I was a little boy and lived in a remote, wooded valley on Shikoku Island in the Japanese Archipelago, thousands of miles away from here.At that time there were two books by which I was really fascinated: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Wonderful Adventures of Nils.The whole world was then engulfed by waves of horror.By reading Huckleberry Finn I felt I was able to justify my act of going into the mountain forest at night and sleeping among the trees with a sense of security which I could never find indoors.The protagonist of The Wonderful Adventures of Nils is transformed into a little creature, understands birds’ language and makes an adventurous journey.I derived from the story sensuous pleasures of various kinds.Firstly, living as I was in a deep wood on the Island of Shikoku just as my ancestors had done long ago, I had a revelation that this world and this way of life there were truly liberating.Secondly, I felt sympathetic and identified myself with Nils, a naughty little boy, who while traversing Sweden, collaborating with and fighting for the wild geese, transforms himself into a boy, still innocent, yet full of confidence as well as modesty.On coming home at last, Nils speaks to his parents.I think that the pleasure I derived from the story at its highest level lies in the language, because I felt purified and uplifted by speaking along with Nils.
[2] After I got married, the first child born to us was mentally handicapped.We named him Hikari, meaning “Light” in Japanese.As a baby he responded only to the chirps of wild birds and never to human voices.One summer when he was six years old we were staying at our country cottage.He heard a pair of water rails warbling from the lake beyond a grove, and he said with the voice of a commentator on a recording of wild birds, “They are water rails.” This was the first moment my son ever uttered human words.It was from then on that my wife and I began having verbal communication with our son.