Thursday, May 29, 2008

Princess Haiku listened to the ghostly music of "Kafka On The Shore"



A Poetic Excerpt from "Kafka on the Shore," by Haruki Murakami; a novel the New Yorker calls, "An insistently metaphysical mind-bender." A book that should be required reading for all living spirits.

"Oshima stays behind and helps me close up for the night.
"By any chance have you fallen in love with somebody?" he asks. "You seem kind of out of it."
I don't have any idea how I should respond. "Oshima," I finally say. "this is a pretty weird thing to ask, but do you think it's possible for someone to become a ghost while they're still alive?"
He stops straightening up the counter and looks at me. "A very interesting question, actually. Are you asking about the human spirit in a literary sense-metaphorically, in other words? Or do you mean in actual fact?"
"More in actual fact, I guess," I say.
"The assumption that ghosts literally exist?"
"Right."
Oshima removes his glasses, wipes them with his handkerchief, and puts them back on. "That's what's called a "living spirit.".....


Kafka on the Shore

You sit at the edge of the world,
I am in a crater that's no more.
Words without letters
Standing in the shadow of the door.

The moon shines down on a sleeping lizard.
Little fish rain down from the sky.
Outside the window there are soldiers,
steeling themselves to die.

(Refrain)

Kafka sits in a chair by the shore,
Thinking of the pendulum that moves the world, it seems.
When your heart is closed.
The shadow of the unmoving Sphinx,
Becomes a knife that pierces your dreams.

The drowning girl's fingers
Search for the entrance stone, and more.
Lifting the hem of her azure dress,
She gazes-
at Kafka on the shore.

More zap on Haruki Murakami here.

11 comments:

Unknown said...

Brilliant - I so enjoy Murakami - I've not yet read this one, but your excerpt so inspires me, I'm off to get it as soon as possible!
I love the way he manages to turn things inside out, upside down and really challenge how we see things.

cbb said...

Murakami is a genius, and if you like him, I'm thinking you would also like David Mitchell's (Ghostwritten, Cloud Number Nine, Cloud Atlast, Black Swan Green) work. I LOVED Kafka on the Shore. And, now that you mention it, it is you all over.

Diane Dehler said...

Thanks for the book recs cbb. I will hop online and reserve them from my library.

lotusgreen said...

the title reminds me of einstein on the beach, which would probably be a good accompaniment

dennis said...

Dennis likes the word AZURE.

Anonymous said...

I've never seen this book, but you've certainly made a dreamy introduction to it. Intriguing.

Thank you.

R.L. Bourges said...

Boy. Sounds even crazier than my personal writing - how is that possible?

get zapped said...

thanks for sharing, looks like a good read! It was fun having you make a visit and share your delight with "walking meditation". It is a joy to walk mindfully.

Peace to you.

Digital Flower Pictures said...

Hi Princess,

You have been posting some great pictures. Sorry I don't know anywhere to get the Chrysanthemum cuttings but I will ask around.

Harry Markov said...

Ah, a very interesting post you write. I have been interested by this book for a while and wondered what it was. I hope we get it printed in Bulgaria as well.

I am back, so you know!

Bellezza said...

I just bought Murakami's "After Dark." He's a litte hard for me to understand, sometimes, and I haven't started it quite yet. But, I do love Japanese authors, and if I get stuck I can surely ask you your opinion, right?