After the Quake

by Haruki Murakami

“I can’t think about it. I don’t even know how I’m going to live.”

“You know something?” she said. “What?” “I’m completely empty.” “Yeah?” “Yeah.” She closed her eyes and, before she knew it, tears were flowing down her cheeks.

if it was all right for God to test man, why was it wrong for man to test God?

“Mutual understanding is of critical importance. There are those who say that ‘understanding’ is merely the sum total of our misunderstandings,

I am a genuine frog. Shall I croak for you?”

Anyone claiming that I am not a frog would be a dirty liar. I would smash such a person to bits!”

Why do i love him

Frog rolled his large eyes. “To tell you the truth, Mr. Katagiri,” he said, “I’m the one who will do all the fighting. But I can’t do it alone. This is the key thing: I need your courage and your passion for justice. I need you to stand behind me and say, ‘Way to go, Frog! You’re doing great! I know you can win! You’re fighting the good fight!’ ”

The king needs moral support

Have you read Anna Karenina, Mr. Katagiri?” When he heard that Katagiri had not read the novel, Frog gave him a look as if to say, What a shame. Apparently Frog was very fond of Anna Karenina.

“Still, Mr. Katagiri, I do not believe that you will leave me to fight alone. I can tell. It’s a question of balls—which, unfortunately, I do not happen to possess. Ha ha ha ha!” Frog laughed with his mouth wide open. Balls were not all that Frog lacked. He had no teeth, either.

The whole terrible fight occurred in the area of imagination. That is the precise location of our battlefield. It is there that we experience our victories and our defeats. Each and every one of us is a being of limited duration: all of us eventually go down to defeat. But as Ernest Hemingway saw so clearly, the ultimate value of our lives is decided not by how we win but by how we lose.

As soon as I get out of this hospital, he thought, I’ll buy Anna Karenina and “White Nights” and read them both. Then I’ll have a nice long literary discussion about them with Frog.

STOP THIS IS SO ADORABLE

“You were very fond of Frog, weren’t you, Mr. Katagiri?” “Locomotive,” Katagiri mumbled. “More than anybody.” Then he closed his eyes and sank into a restful, dreamless sleep.

“But you didn’t get it. You just didn’t get it. Not till the salmon disappeared from the river.”