Peachfuzz Translations

Yume de Aimashou: Asparagus (Murakami)

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Yume de Aimashou: Asparagus (Murakami)

from Yume de Aimashou, collected here

Asparagus

    We found ourselves lost in the middle of an asparagus field, of all places. We’d set out early that morning, aiming to arrive in the next town just after midday, but before we knew it, there we were in a vast field of asparagus, and the sun had begun to lean to the west. The breeze carried a definite chill, and the air all around was pregnant with that sinister asparagus smell.
    I got out the compass and map from my knapsack and tried to determine where we’d ended up, but the effort left me even more confused. The map didn’t show a single thing about an asparagus field anywhere near here.
    
“Let’s just figure out where the town is. As long as we know which way to go, we can knuckle down and make it out of this field, at least,” I said.
    My little brother, the lightest of us, shimmied gracefully up a towering asparagus tree, then gripped the trunk tight with one hand like a monkey as he swiveled to look all around.
    “I don’t know. I can’t see a thing. There’s no lights or anything,” he said, shaking his head.
    “What’ll we do?” my little sister asked me, her voice trembling with tears waiting to spill.
    “Hey, it’s okay. No need to worry,” I told her, patting her shoulder. “I need you two to get us a bunch of kindling. Enough to keep a fire going all night. I’ll dig us a ditch.”
    My sister and brother did as I asked: covering their mouths and noses with towels to keep from going numb, they set out to collect twigs and dead branches of asparagus. In the meantime, I dug out a ditch around a meter deep with my shovel. A ditch without water and only about a meter deep wasn't much more than a placebo, but it was better than nothing. At least it would calm the other two down.
    The full moon floated clearly up in the sky, and its light dyed the cloudy breath that the asparagus spewed from its roots a shade of blue. Some straggling little birds alighted on the ground, looking pained as they beat their wings. Very soon now - when the moon shone straight overhead - they would probably be ensnared and dragged away by the asparagus tentacles. Of all nights, tonight had to be a full moon.
    “Stay low to the ground, and keep your head below the gas. No falling asleep. The second we do, the tentacles will find us,” I said. The long night was about to begin.

--Haruki Murakami
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Yume de Aimashou: Assistant (Itoi)

 

Yume de Aimashou: Assistant (Itoi)

from Yume de Aimashou, collected here

Assistant

    An assistant may not, without permission, eat a manjū which the professor has kept to eat at their leisure later on.
    An assistant may not scheme to prevent a lady visitor, on the pretext of said visitor’s beauty, from entering the professor’s office.

    An assistant may not practice such discrimination as to pour watery, worn-out tea for the professor, then give themselves the first pour of a new kettle.
    An assistant may not, when speaking with the professor, begin their sentences with “So, y’know…”
    An assistant may not covet a salary greater, nor chair more comfortable, than that of the professor.
    An assistant may not arbitrarily print “section chief” or other such titles on business cards.
    This being the case, I have no intention of becoming an assistant, now or anytime in the future.

--Itoi Shigesato
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Yume de Aimashou: Eisenhower (Murakami)

 

Yume de Aimashou: Eisenhower (Murakami)

from Yume de Aimashou, collected here
Eisenhower (or the State of the Postwar in 1958)

    On September 26th, 1958, in the evening, Sonny Rollins stood upon the darkening Brooklyn Bridge, alone and diligently practicing his scales on his tenor saxophone.
    “Hey, mister, what’re you doing?” asked a boy as he walked by Sonny.
    “I’m fighting a nuclear monster,” Sonny answered.
    “No way!” said the boy.

    At that very moment, President Eisenhower was commanding the armed forces, out in the middle of the New Mexican desert, locked in grand and deadly battle with a real nuclear monster, which was possessed of four enormous pincers.
    “Mr. President, if this goes on, the whole world will be destroyed. Our weapons can’t contend with that,” reported the Secretary of State, delivering the battle status in a haggard voice.
    “O God, forgive us. We have brought into this world a being that never should have been,” the President murmured.
    Shuffle, shuffle, shuffle, went the nuclear monster, crushing and trampling tanks and desert soldiers as it came.

    “Hey, aren’t the doughnuts ready yet?” I yelled, at nine years old, toward my mother’s back as she stood in the kitchen.

--Haruki Murakami
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Murakami Haruki & Itoi Shigesato: Yume de Aimashou (Let's Meet in a Dream)

 

Murakami Haruki & Itoi Shigesato: Yume de Aimashou (Let's Meet in a Dream)

Earlier this year, a friend told me about the book Yume de Aimashou (Let's Meet In a Dream)​, by pretty-famous novelist Murakami Haruki (whom you've probably heard of if you're reading this at all) and Itoi Shigesato, designer of the Mother games and occasional Studio Ghibli voice actor. There's a huge cross-section of the Internet to whom this book should at least be worth some curiosity!

I'll post links to individual translations below.

The book is a collection of short stories, or thoughts, or ideas - it's hard to pin down. Lindsay at Yomuka! has included a translation of Murakami's thoughts on the subject, from his introduction to the book, on this detailed page - which incidentally is the most complete collection of translated works from the book that I've found online, and some seriously nice work!

As always, this is just for fun, and should official English publication ever come up (fingers crossed!), I hope you'll buy a copy if you're interested. Even if I'm not involved. :P
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Murakami

Itoi

  • Eisenhower
  • Asparagus​​
  • Assistants
  • Apartment
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    Jackson Pietsch
    ピーチ・ジャクソン

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