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a143120
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The dead can survive as part of the lives of those that still live.
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Kenzaburō Ōe |
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d4bce7d
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Understanding comes hard to persons of high rank who are accustomed to phony lifestyles that involve no daily work.
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understanding
work
society
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Kenzaburō Ōe |
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3db9297
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It takes a person of great care and insight to watch for any abnormality in the green grass even while it grows abundantly and healthily.
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Kenzaburō Ōe |
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658acf6
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One day Bird had approached his father with this question; he was six years old: Father, where was I a hundred years before I was born? Where will I be a hundred years after I die? Father, what will happen to me when I die? Without a word, his young father had punched him in the mouth, broke two of his teeth and bloodied his face, and Bird forgot the fear of death.
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Kenzaburō Ōe |
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2ea35c3
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I kept trying to run away. And I almost did. But it seems that reality compels you to live properly when you live in the real world.
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Kenzaburō Ōe |
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192682f
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Bird's mother-in-law sat quite still, the world's most forlorn ventriloquist.
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Kenzaburō Ōe |
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fea5db9
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Hiroshima is like a nakedly exposed wound inflicted on all mankind.
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Kenzaburō Ōe |
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26a71ac
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It's a little bit like what Akari said to his grandmother in Shikoku, during her final illness: 'Please cheer up and die!
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Kenzaburō Ōe |
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42c3d3c
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The fear of blindness created a moment's vacuum, serving as a relaxant for my exhausted and overheated brain.
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Kenzaburō Ōe |
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dd995b3
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Right now you're about the least attractive Bird I've ever seen...But I'll sleep with you just the same. I haven't been fastidious about morality since my husband committed suicide; besides, even if you intend to have the most disgusting kind of sex with me, I'm sure I'll discover something genuine in no matter what we do.
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Kenzaburō Ōe |
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ebf3a5f
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We naturally try to forget our personal tragedies, serious or trifling, as soon as possible (even something as petty as being scorned or disdained by a stranger on a street corner). We try not to carry these things over to tomorrow. It is not strange, therefore, that the whole human race is trying to put Hiroshima, the extreme point of human tragedy, completely out of mind.
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tragedy
responsibility
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Kenzaburō Ōe |
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7593458
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The people of Hiroshima went to work at once to restore human society in the aftermath of the great atomic flood. They were concerned to salvage their own lives, but in the process they also salvaged the souls of the people who have brought the atomic bomb.
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society
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Kenzaburō Ōe |
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15fa18c
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In this age of ours it's hard to say with certainty that having lived was better than not having been born in the first place.
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Kenzaburō Ōe |
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1b18829
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I'm the one who'd like to send a telegram, AM RATHER IN TROUBLE--but addressed to whom?
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Kenzaburō Ōe |
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3d778b5
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They gave the impression of unnaturally halted motion, like film caught in a projector.
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Kenzaburō Ōe |
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ae47fbc
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I thought about death and was gripped by feelings which choked my chest and made my throat dry, a sudden pushing and shoving in my guts. It was a sort of chronic ailment I had. Once that feeling and that agitation of my whole body had begun, I wouldn't be able to shake it off until I got to asleep. And I couldn't recall it with the same impact in the daytime.
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Kenzaburō Ōe |
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8451a6b
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You're right about this being limited to me, it's entirely a personal matter. But with some personal experiences that lead you way into a cave all by yourself, you must eventually come to a side tunnel or something opens on a truth that concerns not just yourself but everyone. And with that kind of experience at least the individual is rewarded for his suffering. Like Tom Sawyer! He had to suffer in a pitch-black cave, but at the same time ..
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Kenzaburō Ōe |
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cb06db7
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Once a person has been poisoned by self-deception, he can't make decisions about himself as neatly as all that.
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Kenzaburō Ōe |
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354b801
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More often than not he finds what he is looking for, and it destroys him.
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Kenzaburō Ōe |
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cc03c86
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Now I was just a transient in the valley, a one-eyed passerby too fat for his years, and life there had the power to summon up neither the memory nor the illusion of any other, truer self. As a passerby I had a right to insist on my identity.
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Kenzaburō Ōe |
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b46d575
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You're still young, probably you haven't lost sight of anything in this world that you can never forget, that's so dear to you you're aware of its absence all the time. Probably the sky a hundred yards or so above your head is still nothing more than sky to you. But all that means is that the storehouse happens to be empty at the moment.
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Kenzaburō Ōe |
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cb36239
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Anyway, I wasn't asleep; if I nap during the day I can never get to sleep at night. I was thinking about the pluralistic universe.
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Kenzaburō Ōe |
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035a70e
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I wonder if it's suffering." "What, our generation?" "The baby!"
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life
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Kenzaburō Ōe |
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8b40517
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Bird had hoped at least to achieve a little humor in his vomiting style, but his actual performance was anything but funny.
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Kenzaburō Ōe |
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32e3503
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Once a person has been poisoned by self-deception, he can't make decisions about himself as neatly as all that," Himiko said, elaborating her friend's terrific prophecy; " You won't get a divorce Bird. You'll justify yourself like crazy, and try to salvage your married life by confusing the real issues. A decision like divorce is beyond you now, Bird, the poison has gone to work. And you know how the story ends ? Not even your own wife will..
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divorce
existentialism
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Kenzaburō Ōe |
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0ac5de9
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Kafka, you know, wrote in a letter to his father, the only thing a parent can do for a child is to welcome it when it arrives.
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Kenzaburō Ōe |
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b3005f6
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You're trying to make something relative out of the irrevocability of your husband's death by assuming another universe where he is still alive. But you can't make the absoluteness of death relative, no matter what psychological tricks you use.
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Kenzaburō Ōe |
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9f22a4a
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'He's black, you see that! I thought he would be all along.' Harelip's voice trembled with excitement. 'He's a real black man, you see!' 'What are they going to do with him, shoot him?' 'Shoot him!' Harelip shouted, gasping with surprise. 'Shoot a real live black man!' Because he's the enemy,' I asserted without confidence. 'Enemy! You call him an enemy!' Harelip seized my shirt and railed at me hoarsely, spraying my face with saliva throug..
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Kenzaburō Ōe |
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54805c2
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You're a comfort to me," he said simply. "I mean to be. I bet you haven't been comforted once since all this began. And that's not good, Bird. At a time like this you must be careful to have someone comfort you almost more than you need at least once. Otherwise you'll find yourself helpless when the time comes to summon up your courage and break away from chaos."
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Kenzaburō Ōe |
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08d6ff5
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Manusia ialah khalifah; apabila kerajaan tidak bijak dan rakyat menderita, kenapa ia tidak membuat perubahan?
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rintihan-terpendam
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Kenzaburō Ōe |
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216b854
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Probably the sky a hundred yards or so above your head is still nothing more than sky to you. But all that means is that the storehouse happens to be empty at the moment.
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Kenzaburō Ōe |
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1a78a4f
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The cul-de-sac was shaped like a stomach, a stomach with an obstruction in the duodenum.
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Kenzaburō Ōe |
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7ecad32
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After a blank of seven years it had taken him and his friend just seven minutes of conversation to eliminate everything worthy of their mutual curiosity.
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Kenzaburō Ōe |
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e60b13a
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Evening was deepening, and the fever of early summer, like the temperature of a dead giant, had dropped completely from the covering air.
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Kenzaburō Ōe |
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44a2ac9
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Suddenly he is sighted by a giant phacochoere.
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Kenzaburō Ōe |
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aa5aff3
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What if there was a last judgment! Under what category of the Dead could you subpoena, prosecute, and sentence a baby with only vegetable functions who died no sooner than he was born?
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Kenzaburō Ōe |
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5678e08
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In silence, Bird reflected sadly on his wife's misconception of the nature of Swahili.
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Kenzaburō Ōe |
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a0fc0af
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Can you tell me which is yours?" Standing at Bird's side, the nurse spoke as if she were addressing the father of the hospital's healthiest and most beautiful baby. But she wasn't smiling, she didn't even seem sympathetic; Bird decided this must be the standard intensive care ward quiz. Not only the nurse who had asked the question but two young nurses who were rinsing baby bottles beneath a huge water heater on the far wall, and the older ..
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Kenzaburō Ōe |
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6c3247f
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Gradually, as wine turns to vinegar, Bird's consternation turned to fear, aureoles of fear spread around his eyes like deep rings: he felt himself turning into a frightened monocle monkey.
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Kenzaburō Ōe |
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0202c56
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Once a problem's solved, the things that have been plaguing you seem terribly stupid and trivial.
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Kenzaburō Ōe |
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2243ef9
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Bird's waking dream was harsh, the reverse face of the innocent dream that had ushered him into sleep, a thing armored in burrs that inspired anguish. Sleep for Bird was a funnel which he entered through the wide and easy entrance and had to leave by the narrow exit.
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Kenzaburō Ōe |
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0953728
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Peril-ridden and fragile, the imperfect human body, what a shameful thing it was!
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Kenzaburō Ōe |
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8fdb63b
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His eyes, filled with tears and his own blood, are already blind to all things in reality, but the colossal chrysanthemum topped with a purple aurora illuminates the darkness behind his closed lids more radiantly than any light he has ever seen. His head nothing more than a dark void now, the blood all drained away, he is no longer certain whether the person awaiting him at the top of the stone steps is a certain party, but if he can crawl ..
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Kenzaburō Ōe |
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fc9e86c
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Time doesn't move at all, I thought in irritation. Like a domestics animal, time doesn't move without human beings' strict supervision. Like a horse or a sheep, time won't move a step without grown ups' orders. We are a steady state in the stagnation of time.
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Kenzaburō Ōe |