Friday, November 25, 2016

Japanese Cryptic: Foresight

 

Translated from Japanese by Shishou(師匠)

 

Cryptic Story

 


When I was in elementary school, I'd relentlessly bully a guy (let's call him A-kun) as he sucked at both studies and sports.

Things changed when we reached middle school. He started receiving perfect scores, which was quite ironic as he slept through all his classes.

During the school-event he took the role of event-manager and turned it into a huge success.


This erratic change in A-kun intrigued me, and therefore, I called him up for a questioning-session.

His answer to my questions was-

"Actually, I can see the future. I can see it in a very great detail." 

When I told him I was envious of his ability, he replied,

"I don't need this power anymore. If you want, I can give it to you. Meet me on the day before our graduation."

"Woohoo!", I shouted. This was something I've always wanted. Power to peek the future? What else could you want more!

Days came and went, and came it the day when I'd receive my power from A-kun.

We both met at the promised spot. He told that a ceremony has to be performed in order to transfer the power. He covered both of my ears and then proceeded to recite some incantations in a low voice. This went on for a minute or two. Finally, he said it was over. He could no longer see the future after transferring the ability to me.

"Wooaah!! I can see it! I can see it!! I can see tomorrow's graduation ceremony.  I can see my high-school girlfriend, my university, my job in a first-class corporation, my wedding ceremony. It's amazing!"

But, I'm kind of regretting the 'present' moment.
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10 comments:

  1. Maybe A-kun dies after transferring his power? He said he was gotten enough of it right? In a sense, he might decide to suicide because foresighting ability is quite a burden. It's like sometimes you could just see, not help or change anything that will later happen in the future.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Even I don't know correct explanation this story. One thing is that the ability show both good and bad future. Maybe he's regretting the current moment because he saw someone's death, or maybe he saw till the end of his life. Also, A-kun covered narrator's ears while transferring him the power which means our narrator doesn't know the incantation to transfer the power to someone else. So, basically he is forced to keep this power with him till his death. Also, A-kun got his revenge by transferring the power which is actually a curse.

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    2. Another story which explains why bullying is not good. I am not quite afraid of the physical revenge, but things like this is scarier. It could torture us mentally and even more worse revenge! This could slowly make our soul rot. Pretty scary Shishou-san!

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    3. Now our narrator will be dealing with incessant mental torture. Maybe A-kun was planning this from a long time, he chose the graduation day as they both will go separate ways after that.

      Delete
  2. Did he sell his soul to the devil or? Did A-Kun make a deal with the devil to trade souls for his gift and be free of his deal?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I've posted the explanation in the above comment. Please take a look and give your thoughts.

      Delete
    2. I like your explanation on the transfer! A-kun covering his ears was suspicious, but I'm still a bit puzzled about the emphasis on his regretting the 'present' moment. Did the original author explain it, or did anyone in the Japanese comments section give a plausible explanation? Also is the word for 'present' in Japanese open to wordplay like the English one is? (e.g. can be used to refer to gift or time)

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    3. I couldn't find any good explanation from both the sites where it was posted. Also there were no comments on any of the sites. The author of one site said the regret was because the narrator saw his own death. The other site admin posted that the narrator was regretting now because he saw the death of his family member etc. Also he mentioned A-kun covering narrator's ears could be the cause of regret.

      The original Japanese sentence was そして「今」少し後悔している。
      I don't think any wordplay is being used here as the admin would have written it on his site.

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  3. Maybe he's regretting the present moment because the cost of seeing into the future is that he becomes blind. That's why he regrets it. Even though he can see into the future and plan out his actions based on what he sees, he traded his normal vision for the future vision.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Narrator going blind would mean that A-kun was blind too because of the power, but we see that A-kun used to get perfect grades. I don't think it's possible to do that without a perfect vision. Well, nice try though.

      Delete

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