Cutting Off a Piece of the Sky
There once lived a man who was trying to cut himself a piece of the sky. “You know, I have eaten a cloud before.” (This was his single source of pride.) Now he was thinking he’d like to cut off a piece of the sky, prepare it like a bar of purple youkan bean paste and eat it. So he hurled kitchen knives, scissors, and other blades up at the sky, flinging them up, over and over again. This continued for a year. But the blades kept falling back to earth, and countless cuts now covered his arms and head. He realized, “I’m just not going to be able to slice the sky with cutlery.” With no other options, he went down to Akasaka and bought some high-quality youkan. He spray-painted it blue then ate it.
空を切り取ろうとしてる男がいました。「雲なら食ったことがある」男の唯一自慢出来るのはそれでした。だから今度は空を切取って、それを羊羹みたいにして食べようと思ってたのです。そして空に包丁やハサミやナイフの刃物を投げつけた。何回も何回も投げつけた。一年間続けた。でも自分の投げた刃物が降ってきて、腕や頭に刺さった事数えきれず傷だらけ。男は思った「刃物なんかで空は切れない」と。仕方が無いので赤坂に高級羊羹を買いに行って、スプレーで青くしてから食べました。
October 12, 2007 at 6:45 pm
“Posted in Fiction, The Future”?
I guess Andy Warhol had it all wrong.
The future is not about short fame for everyone.
The future is about spray-painted bean paste.
e.
October 12, 2007 at 10:43 pm
youkan is for japanese authors what the motorcycle is for their american counterparts.
October 13, 2007 at 7:49 pm
Think there might be a small typo in the Japanese transcription, wouldn’t it be 「買いに行って」 in the second to last phrase in place of 「会いに行って」？ Although going to Akasaka for a romantic rendezvous with some youkan is a beautiful image! I love these stories by the way, I feel like my mom is reading me a bedtime story, but then someone hits me on the head with a rock.
October 16, 2007 at 8:18 pm
Good eye, Patrick. That was my transcription error.
Whoa did we get hacked. I just got back from a small vacation, and we’ll get new content up once stuff gets fixed.