Trying to make sense of a sentence in Akutagawa's "Hell Screen"


Towards the end of chapter 10 of Akutagawa's _Hell Screen_ ,

>
> その度にばさ／＼と、凄じく翼を鳴すのが、落葉の匂だか、滝の水沫とも或は又猿酒の饐ゑたいきれだか何やら怪しげなものゝけはひを誘つて、気味の悪さと云つたらございません。
>
> [Source](https://www.aozora.gr.jp/cards/000879/files/60_15129.html)

which translated to

> The flattering of wings is compared to the smell of fallen leaves, the
> splashing of a waterfall, saruzake, [...]

Is it a reference to something in the culture? Why would the flapping of wings
be compared to the smell of fallen leaves, or why that smell of fallen leaves
is creepy in the first place? I can't make head or tail of this.

Can it be simplified (cutting out the middle part) to

> 翼を鳴すのが ... 気味の悪さと云つたらございません。
>
> The flapping of wings was ... so grotesque it was almost indescribable?

It's the only sentence in the novel that really stumped me and the reading
group so far, would appreciate the help!




First, I don't think "grotesque" is a particularly accurate translation of
気味の悪[い]. "Creepy" is much closer and would be fine in some contexts; here, a
less colloquial alternative like "uncanny," "disturbing," or "sinister" would
be better.

Second, nothing in this passage _compares_ the flapping of the owl's wings to
the smell of fallen leaves or says that 落葉の匂 itself is creepy. Rather, as you
seem to have recognized, the phrase 気味の悪さと云ったらございません refers to the violent
flapping of the owl's wings each time it attacks. This flapping produces an
indefinable but unsettling sensation that changes the room's atmosphere; it
might be the scent of fallen leaves, or it might be the feeling of spray from
a waterfall, or of hot, damp air infused with the sour odor given off by a
monkey's stash of fermenting fruit. Whatever the sensation is, it's profoundly
out of place, because what all these things have in common is that one would
not normally encounter them in an artist's studio, but out in the wilderness –
which is to say, in the owl's natural habitat. And sure enough, the
paragraph's final sentence (which you haven't included in your quotation)
tells us that the apprentice later said that at the time of the attack "it
seemed to him that even the dim glow of the oil lamp was the faint light of
the moon shining through the haze, and he felt as frightened as if the
artist's studio had been some forbidding hollow in the depths of the
mountains"
(さう云へばその弟子も、うす暗い油火の光さへ朧げな月明りかと思はれて、師匠の部屋がその儘遠い山奥の、妖気に閉された谷のやうな、心細い気がしたとか申したさうでございます).

So there's nothing inherently "creepy" about the smell of fallen leaves (or
the spray of a waterfall, etc.), either "in the culture" or in Akutagawa's own
sensibility. Rather, what is disturbing is the way the owl's attack evokes a
desolate wilderness, effectively transforming the artist's studio – which
ought to be a place of culture and safety – into a place of savagery and
danger.

