Sublime

We threw ourselves into the sea at Kamakura that night. She untied her sash, saying she had borrowed it from a friend at the café, and left it folded neatly on a rock. I removed my coat and put it in the same spot. We entered the water together. She died. I was saved. The incident was treated rather prominently in the press, no doubt because I was

“But once the ego is born into this world, it has to shoulder morality.

And now I had become a madman. Even if released, I would be forever branded on the forehead with the word “madman,” or perhaps, “reject.” Disqualified as a human being. I had now ceased utterly to be a human being.

One of them picked up a shovel and spaded earth. Since coming to the camp, their guilt had died and left behind a husk, whose hair and flesh were crackly like onion skin. We buried the husks and covered them with dirt, each scoop sending them further away, to some far-off place. All of us were crying never-ending violent tears. Then over on the sun

God, I ask you. Is trustfulness a sin?

“I’ve had enough,” Horiki said with a scowl. “Not even a lecher like myself can kiss a woman who looks so poverty-stricken.”