Itteki : Hitomi Shimpei
Jack's Heart -At Rest-
Standing out is happiness
Standing out is loneliness
The attributes of separation and unity are transformed into a feeling of security
Even in soldiers all lined up, you can find loneliness in their unity
Even conflicting positions are beset with similar gray areas
With a hole in his "heart" Jack cannot be indifferent to what happened
So the inventor created another "heart" that looked similar to himeringo*
And buried it inside the bipedal robot Mary's chest
The two become friends immediately
And the cloudiness in Jack's "heart" slowly disappears
On the mornings of clear days, together they tend the garden
In the evenings, they wait motionlessly in the garden for visitors from the forest
On rainy days, in the inventor's bedroom, which is decorated by a single record that
They listen to it again, and again
Together, all day long
A body that cannot age A "heart" that grows day by day
From the soil where a young dead deer returns to the earth a flower bud bravely sprouts
It returns, and returns in fleeting colors
One night Jack said to the inventor
"When I'm with Mary, my hearts hurts And even though I want to be together always,
When we're together, my heart hurts."
One night Mary said to the inventor
"When I'm with Jack, my heart hurts And even though I want to be together always,
When we're together, my heart hurts."
The inventor spoke to them of selfless love and selfish love
Because the pendulum cannot stop contradictions
Happiness and sadness waver
Every day gets more complicated, that even inside this labyrinth
They worry that they cannot escape
These two are happiness
These two are loneliness
A body that cannot age A "heart" that grows day by day
Years went by, and on the night of a full moon during Kannazuki**
The inventor witnesses the two stop moving in the corner of the garden
They have pried open their chests and in their C-shaped hands fiercely grip each other's "hearts" that look similar to himeringo*
And their bodies are at rest
The inventor watched them overnight and left them there
Jack and Mary are left alone---"heart"
Jack and Mary are hand-in-hand----"forever"
And they will not be disturbed
The flower garden that is no longer tended has fallen into ruin
Their large flowers are entwined by long ivy
And before anyone knew it, Jack and Mary were completely enveloped
The rain from the next day forms a whisper of a puddle in the center of their large flowers
That is the single drop that becomes a small mirror
Reflecting the sunlight and sparkling,
As if the flowers carry life itself
[translator's notes]
*Himeringo: literally 'Princess Apple,' himeringo is the Nagasaki Crab Apple
**Kannazuki: October in the traditional (Shinto) Japanese calendar, it is also known as the "month without gods"
