you are a woman; you don’t feel like the Devil。
Not at all! When I pulled on my mother’s rose…embroidered wool
underclothes; a gentle sense of well…being spread over me and I felt as sensitive
as she。 The touch against my bare skin of my aunt’s pistachio…green silk shirt;
which she could never bring herself to wear; made me feel an irrepressible
affection toward all children; including myself。 I wanted to nurse everybody
and cook for the whole world。 After I understood to some extent what it was
like to have breasts; I stuffed my chest with whatever I could find—socks and
washcloths—so I might understand what really made me curious: how it felt
to be a large…breasted woman。 When I saw these huge protrusions; yes; I admit
it; I was as proud as Satan。 I understood at once that men; merely catching
sight of the shadow of my overabundant breasts; would chase after them and
strive to take them into their mouths; I felt quite powerful; but is that what I
wanted? I was befuddled: I wanted both to be powerful and to be the object of
pity; I wanted a rich; powerful and intelligent man; whom I didn’t know from
Adam; to fall madly in love with me; yet I also feared such a man。 Sliding on
the bracelets made of twisted gold that my mother hid at the bottom of her
trousseau chest next to the sheets embroidered with leafy designs; in lavender…
scented wool socks; applying the rouge with which she brightened her cheeks
on the way back from the public baths; donning my aunt’s evergreen cloak
and putting on the thin veil of the same color after gathering up my hair; I
stared at myself in the mirror with the mother…of…pearl frame; and shuddered。
Although I hadn’t touched them; my eyes and eyelashes had bee those of
a woman。 Only my eyes and cheeks were exposed; but I was an extraordinarily
382
attractive woman and this made me very happy。 My manliness; which took
note of this fact before even I had; was erect。 Naturally; this upset me。
In the hand mirror I held; I watched a teardrop slide from my lovely eye and
just then; a poem painfully came to mind。 I’ve never been able to forget it;
because at that same moment; inspired by the Almighty; I sang that poem
rhythmically like a song; trying to forget my woes:
My fickle heart longs for the West when I’m in the East and for the East when
I’m in the West。
My other parts insist I be a woman when I’m a man and a man when I’m a
woman。
How difficult it is being human; even worse is living a human’s life。
I only want to amuse myself frontside and backside; to be Eastern and Western
both。