Killing Commendatore

by Haruki Murakami

bereft

stout

flitted

shoddy

ominous,

lathered

clamor

Plunged

fumbling

wherewithal

wended

portended.

straddled

supple

fathom

He needed solitary time every day to concentrate, and he couldn’t stand it when someone’s presence threw off his concentration. If he lived with someone he knew he would end up detesting them. Whether it was his parents, a wife, or children. He feared that above all. He wasn’t afraid of loving someone. What he feared was growing to hate someone.

my life has never been of much consequence. I’m well aware of that. So it seems fitting for someone like me to quietly exit the world without making a big deal of things,

Ueda Akinari’s

Tales of the Spring Rain?”

Tales of Moonlight...

emaciated

zenjo.

nyujo,

backhoe.

Nyujo originally means ‘attaining enlightenment,’ so they have the term ikinyujo—‘living nyujo’—to distinguish the two.

“Fruitarian?” “Just eating grasses and nuts and berries. They eat no cooked foods whatsoever, starting with grains. In other words, a radical elimination of all fats and moisture from the body. Changing the makeup of the body so it can easily mummify. And after purifying his body, the priest goes underground. In the darkness there the priest fasts and recites sutras, hitting a gong in time to that. Or ringing a bell. And people can hear the sound of that gong or bell through the vent hole. But at some point the sounds stop. That’s the sign that he’s breathed his last. And over a period of time the body gradually turns into a mummy. The custom is to unearth the body after three years and three months.” “Why would they do that?” “So the priests could practice austerity to the point of becoming self-mummified. Doing that allows them to reach enlightenment and to arrive at a realm beyond life and death. This also connects up with mankind’s salvation. So-called Nirvana. The unearthed enlightened monk, the mummy, is kept at a temple, and through praying to it people are saved.” “In reality it’s a kind of suicide.” Menshiki nodded. “Which is why in the Meiji period the practice of self-burial was outlawed. People who helped in the process could be arrested for aiding and abetting suicide. The truth is, though, priests continued to follow the practice in secret. That’s why there may be quite a few cases of priests being buried but never unearthed by anyone.”

shriveled

lattice-shaped

parboiled

scum

Thelonious Monk

Coleman Hawkins

John Co...

dregs

teeming

provenance,

shuddering

inchoate,

rapping

“Annie Laurie”

parched.

slate-shaped

apprehensive

flitted

clambered

unbidden,

smacks

“That sometimes in life we can’t grasp the boundary between reality and unreality. That boundary always seems to be shifting. As if the border between countries shifts from one day to the next depending on their mood. We need to pay close attention to that movement, otherwise we won’t know which side we’re on. That’s what I meant when I said it might be dangerous for me to remain inside that pit any longer.”

munificent

taut,