Bernard jou Iwaku

Spending a long trip on a train reading...

I've always wanted to try this.

I would've preferred a paperback,

Twelfth Volume: Solo Journey

but I brought this big, heavy hardcover that I started recently

because I'm too curious to see how it ends.

I have lots of time. Now, into the world of the book!

Machida Sawako

Wh-What is it?

Just wondered what you were up to.

I'm on a shinkansen, going to visit my relatives.

Oh, really? Sorry, sorry! Should I let you go?

It doesn't matter. What are you doing?

Sitting at the kotatsu eating tangerines.

Oh, I just watched that movie you recommended. It was good!

Oh, yeah? It's a great sci-fi film, right? Christopher Nolan—

That scene where they recited a poem? I loved that!

Right, the Dylan Thomas poem.

"Do not go gentle into that good night.

Old age should burn and rave at close of day;

Rage, rage against the dying of the light."

You have it memorized?!

I love that poem.

The Welsh poet, Dylan Thomas,

wrote it for his dying father.

Dylan Thomas: October 27, 1914 - November 9, 1953 A Welsh poet and author. He wrote on themes such as rebirth, love, human nature, and death , and left behind splendid works singing of the universal presence of humankind. He's considered one of the greatest 20th century poets.

He was trying to stop his father from quietly accepting death.

In the movie, too, it's used as a message to fight and not give up in the face of doom.

Speaking of rage, I think Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck (February 27, 1902 - December 20, 1968) In the 1930s, during the Great Depression, many farmers in the American Midwest were displaced from their farms. The story, reflecting the social context of this period, tells of the struggles of a displaced Oklahoman farming family while illustrating the fortitude of the human spirit.

has a connection to that movie, too.

It's about farmers setting out to find new land after losing their farm

to the Dust Bowl that struck the American Midwest in the 1930s.

Sounds similar, right?

W-Wow!