Dogra Magra: Translated from Japanese to French to English
Dogra Magra is a surreal and haunting novel by Japanese author Yumeno Kyusaku, first published in 1935. It is a complex and enigmatic work that combines elements of mystery, horror, and philosophy, and has been hailed as a masterpiece of Japanese literature.
The novel begins with an amnesiac protagonist, with no known name (yet), awakening in a hospital with no memory of his past. As he struggles to piece together his identity and unravel the mystery of his amnesia, he is haunted by a series of bizarre and disturbing dreams and hallucinations. He is aided in his quest by a cast of equally mysterious and enigmatic characters, including a doctor, a police officer, and a young woman who may hold the key to his past.
As he delves deeper into his memories and the secrets of his past, the novel takes on a dreamlike quality, blurring the boundaries between reality and illusion. He begins to uncover a dark and twisted history involving his family, the occult, and a series of mysterious deaths. Along the way, he confronts the nature of identity, memory, and consciousness, and questions the very fabric of reality itself.
The novel is notable for its dense and intricate prose, which is both poetic and philosophical in nature. Yumeno Kyusaku employs a range of literary techniques to create a sense of disorientation and unreality, from sudden shifts in narrative perspective to dreamlike imagery and metaphysical musings. The result is a work that challenges the reader's perceptions and forces them to question their own understanding of the world around them.
Despite its avant-garde style and complex themes, Dogra Magra is also a gripping and suspenseful read, with plenty of twists and turns to keep the reader engaged. The novel's blend of horror, mystery, and philosophy creates a unique and unforgettable reading experience that has captivated readers for generations.
In many ways, Dogra Magra is a reflection of the tumultuous period in which it was written, a time of great social and cultural change in Japan. Its themes of identity, memory, and reality resonate with the anxieties of a nation struggling to redefine itself in the aftermath of World War I and the rise of modernity. Yet the novel's surreal and otherworldly qualities also transcend its historical context, speaking to universal human concerns and the eternal mysteries of the human psyche.
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"Reading Dogra Magra is like experiencing an incoherent nightmare, like being trapped in an asylum with the key thrown away...you don't want to stay inside this asylum, you think you're going crazy for real, you want to scream 'LET ME OUT! FOR GOD'S SAKE! LET ME OUT!' but no one is going to save you...and you can trust no one in the story because it's almost a certainty that people are either lying to you or they're crazy. That's what you get by reading Dogra Magra." (Mizuki)
"Read this twice. both times, i was under the influence of lemon iced tea and boredom-and i do idolise Yumeno as a writer, so there's that. Perhaps reading this was an unwise decision . . . i've never been more mindblown and confused by a book in my life!
Absolutely brilliant. Wickedly bewildering and beautifully written. Yumeno's dreamy and admittedly incoherent style of writing has me floored each time. from his short stories, to this novel, and to his poetry, he always shows up and gives his best writing." (Emil)
