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Inagaki Tahuro
The Rock Throwing Affair "So you're hanging around here tonight too huh?" I flung a rock . . . chink! "Oww Hey you!" Mr. Moon jumped down and gave chase I escaped by vaulting a hedge crossing a flower bed and leaping a stream I ran for my life An express train whistled and roared by just as I was about to cut across the tracks Thrown into confusion I was grabbed from behind Mr. Moon banged my head up against a telephone pole When I came round a white mist was hovering over the fields In the distance the red eye of a signal light was weeping As soon as I'd risen to my feet I looked up and shook my fist though Mr. Moon pretended not to notice When I got home my whole body ached I was feverish At that time in the morning when the streets turned pink I stepped outdoors for a breath of fresh air when from the other side of the crossroads someone I remembered having seen before walked over to me "How are you feeling? I must apologize for my conduct last night" he said Pondering his identity I made my way home where on the table a bottle of peppermint potion awaited me
The Moon in His Pocket One evening Mr. Moon was walking with himself in his pocket On a hilly road his shoelace came undone He was bending down to tie it when Mr. Moon rolled out of his pocket and down the slope On the rain-slick asphalt he rolled over and over and over and over thus rolling to the end of the earth Mr. Moon ran after Mr. Moon but since he was moving ever so quickly the interval between Mr. Moon and Mr. Moon gradually grew far apart This is how Mr. Moon lost sight of himself in the blue mists far below
Translated by Tricia Vita Inagaki Taruho was born in Osaka in 1900 and lived in Kyoto from 1950 until his death in 1977. He was associated with G.G.P.G., a Dadaist-Futurist magazine, the unabbreviated title of which, GE.GJMGJAM.PRRR.GJMGEM, is said to be the onomatopoeic equivalent of Osaka City noise. In 1925 he was invited to join the Shinkankaka-ha, the "Neo-Perception School" of writers who were influenced by Western modernism as well as by Japanese haiku. Throughout his life Inagaki held to his avant-garde ideals and shunned the literary establishment, often living poverty-stricken and solitary. In the 1960s he was hailed as a rediscovered genius by a new generation of writers. Mishima Yukio described his writing as "one of the subtlest treasures of Showa literature" (the era beginning in 1926). He produced stories and poems, as well as novelistic essays, about the early days of aviation, celestial metaphysics, esoteric Bhuddhism, and the aesthetics of male homosexuality. Tricia Vita lived in Kyoto for three years. She has worked as a literary scout for the Japanese publisher Shueisha and as a translator for Japanese galleries in New York. Her writing has appeared in numerous literary journals. Her translation of Taruho Inagaki's One Thousand and One-Second Stories will be published this year by Sun and Moon. |