This English version of 吾輩は猫である (Wagahai-wa neko de aru: I Am a
Cat), Chapters I and II, written by Natsume Sōseki, pseudonym of Natsume
Kinnosuke (1867-1916), and translated by Kan-ichi Ando (1878-1924), was
published by Hattori Shoten, Tokyo, in 1906. It begins: "I am a cat; but
as yet I have no name." Its sardonic feline narrator describes his
origins, his settlement in the household of a Meiji
teacher-intellectual, and the goings-on and conversations among the cats
and humans about the neighborhood. Of the men he concludes: "They are
miserable creatures in the eyes of a cat."