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。