KUMAMOTO, November, 1893.
DEAR NISHIDA,--Both of your letters were as interesting as they
were kind. They revealed to me much more than I had been able to learn
from the newspapers. I am more than sorry for that terrible destruction
and suffering in the _Ken_; but when I think of Okayama, again, I cannot
help thinking that the good fortune, which seems especially to belong
to Matsue, has not yet deserted her. And the Governor seems to be a
first-class man. I like that story of his action with the rice-dealers.
But really, the people are very patient. In some Western countries,
notably in parts of America, it would have been more than dangerous for
men to have acted so selfishly; and they would be in any case afterwards
"boycotted," and obliged perhaps to leave the city. It is a great pity
they were not made to suffer for such atrocious meanness. When I think
of the chrysanthemums in your garden, and read your extraordinary
story about catching fish in it, I can realize what a tremendous loss
there must have been through all the rice-country. Certainly Matsue is
fortunate to have escaped as she did.
Almost at the same time there came to me news from the Gulf of Mexico.
Perhaps you will remember that I wrote a novel about some islands there.
I used to pass my summers in those islands. They were about sixty miles
from the city of New Orleans. Well, on October 4th, a storm burst over
that coast, killing more than 2000 people. The island of Grand Isle was
covered by the sea in the night; and everything--houses, trees, and
people--carried away. Hundreds I used to know are dead. It is a year of
storms and calamities, surely, in all parts of the world.
I will write a better letter later: I am writing now to answer your
questions about those sentences:--
(i) "Choppy"--"chopped" or "chapped" by cold: "chapped hands"--hands of
which the skin is _cracked_ by frost. "His hands are all chapped"--that
is, all _roughened_ by frost. "Choppy" is not so often used as
"chapped:" it is a poetical use of the word.
(ii) "He had torn the cataracts from the hills." You must remember here
Winter is personified as a monstrous giant. "Cataracts" is used in the
sense of "waterfalls." The waterfalls are frozen into solid masses of
ice. Winter, the giant, breaks them off, and hangs them round his waist.
[Illustration]
(iii) "And they clanked at his girdle like _manacles_" (from Latin
_manus_, "hand") (you spelled the word wrong: it is "manacles").
"Manacles," iron fetters for the hands;--handcuffs. They are made
in pairs, fastened together by a chain, and closed by a key. They
_clank_ when they strike together,--(i. e.) make a ringing metallic
noise--because they are of fine steel usually. The sound made by iron
is "clank"--"_to_ clank" (verb), "_a_ clank" (noun). Why does Shelley
use such a simile? Because Winter is like a jailer, like the keeper of a
prison. He fastens up, or imprisons, the rivers, lakes, and ponds with
ice. So he is described as a keeper of prisoners,--with manacles or
handcuffs hanging to his waist, ready for use. Ice striking against ice
makes a ringing noise, very much like iron--sometimes. The comparison is
very strong.
And why does he put his chapped finger to his lip? To put the first
finger on the lips is a sign for "Be silent!" "Do not speak!" In winter
the world becomes silent. The birds are gone; the insects are dead.