Conversation at a Round Table

A song meant for the sea becomes an embarrassment on land, and an ordinary round table grows into the center of an elaborate welcome. Taruno hopes to escape his crowded household and reach his study, but fishermen, a hard-drinking father-in-law, and the prospect of a visiting actress keep drawing him into conversation, drink, and improbable plans.

Makino Shin’ichi mingles exuberant seaside comedy with melancholy recollections of Taruno’s father and his dreams of ships, fortunes, honorary statues, and public distinction. A village reception promises relief from everyday frustration, while nautical songs and Arthurian adventures suggest other lives the storyteller might inhabit. Gradually, the tale reveals its own difficulty in reaching a conclusion.

First published in 1929, this complete English translation preserves all four sections, lively dialogue, unusual song fragments, and the unresolved metafictional ending. Twenty-six notes explain historical institutions, measures, literary suggestions, dialect expressions, and uncertain textual references. Alternately boisterous and inward-looking, the story captures friendship, family entanglement, and the restless imagination of a writer whose promised adventure keeps returning to its beginning.