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Japan, above the clouds, views on the forest of water

By skiour / Posted on 04 August 2011

Telling the story like this, I feel like I’m talking about someone else, he said with a chuckle, then fell silent.

And when it was all over, the king and his retainers burst out laughing, he finally said. That line always comes to me whenever I remember what happened. It’s like a conditioned reflex. It seems to me that very sad things always contain an element of the comical.

Shomei Tomatsu, Hateruma Island, 1971

Shomei Tomatsu, Hateruma Island, 1971

Senju Hiroshi, Forest of Water, 2008

Senju Hiroshi, Forest of Water, 2008

These days I just can’t seem to say what I mean,’ she said. ‘I just can’t. Every time I try to say something, it misses the point. Either that or I end up saying the opposite of what I mean. The more I try to get it right the more mixed up it gets. Sometimes I can’t even remember what I was trying to say in the first place. It’s like my body’s split in two and one of me is chasing the other me around a big pillar. We’re running circles around it. The other me has the right words, but I can never catch her…

Shomei Tomatsu, O shima Eiko, Actress in the Film Shiiku, 1961

Shomei Tomatsu, O shima Eiko, Actress in the Film Shiiku, 1961

Text from Haruki Murakami’s Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman.

 

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