Perhaps we are conscious of our age only in one exceptional moment and almost always have no age.

Milan Kundera

 

A woman who seems to be in her 60's learns swimming from a young male teacher. When leaving the pool after lesson, she suddenly returns and sends him a signal as if to "throw balloons colorfully painted to her boyfriend." The existence of people is also like a balloon. It drifts freely without knowing how old they are. Butterflies in my stomach.  From a scene at the beginning of the exile writer's novel "Immortality" (translated by Akimasa Kanno).

 

February 7  2017

from “Oriori no Kotoba” by Kiyokazu Washida, The Asahi Shimbun