Excerpt from A Cat, A Man and Two Women by Jun'ichirō Tanizaki

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Translated by Paul McCarthy.

He had no friend he could air his grievances to; and as he was forced to keep them bottled up, he came to feel somehow lonely and helpless. This made his love for Lily all the greater. Those lonely feelings that neither Shinako nor Fukuko nor even his mother could understand – it was only Lily, with those sad eyes of hers, who could pierce through to them and offer comfort. And Shozo was sure that he was the only one who could read her sorrow, the unhappiness that the cat had deep within her but couldn’t express directly to human beings.