Akutagawa - Japanese Literature

5.     Self


     With a graduate, sitting at a cafe table, puffing at one cigarette after another.  He hardly opened his mouth.  But listened intently to the graduate's words.

     "Today I spent half a day riding in a car."

     "On business, I suppose?"

     His senior, cheek reclining on palm, replied extremely casually.

     "Huh? - just felt like it."

     The words opened for him an unknown realm, - close to the gods, a realm of Self.  It was painful.  And ecstatic.

     The cafe was cramped.  Under a painting of the god Pan, in a red pot, a gum tree.  Its fleshy leaves.  Limp.



trns. by Will Petersen




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