by Mori Ōgai · 1890
Aboard a steamer in Saigon harbor, Ōta Toyotarō recalls his years as a young state official in Berlin, where he fell for Elis, a sixteen-year-old dancer weeping outside a church. Dismissed from his post and living in a garret with her, he is pulled back toward career and homeland by his friend Aizawa, and betrays her.