O elefante desaparece

Continuo a ler o "The elephant vanishes" do Haruki Murakami. Ontem à noite aninhei-me no sofá com as mantas quentes a abraçarem-me, uma caneca de chá quente na mesinha, o som da chuva na janela, as pernas estiradas e mergulhei no livro até às 6 da manhã. Por duas vezes adormeci e acordei ainda com o livro perfeitamente aberto à frente do meu nariz e continuei como se nada fosse, sem quebra. Talvez porque o sonhar parece mesmo uma linha conducente ao livro.

Now my inability to sleep ceased to frighten me. What was there to be afraid of? Think of the advantages! Now the hours from ten at night to six in the morning belonged to me alone. Until now, a third of every day had been used up by sleep. But no more. No more. Now it was mine, just mine, nobody else's, all mine. I could use this time in any way I liked. No one would get in my way. No one would make demands on me. Yes, that was it. I had expanded my life. I had increased it by a third.

You burn barns. I don't burn barns. There's this glaring difference, and to me, rather than say which of us is strange, first of all I'd like to clear up just what that difference is.

Needless to say, the manufacture of elephants is no easy matter. They're big, first of all, and very complex. It's not like making hairpins or colored pencils.(...) Assigned to the ear section that month, I worked in the building with the yellow ceiling and posts. My helmet and pants were also yellow. All I did there was make ears. The month before, I had been assigned to the green building, where I wore a green helmet and pants and made heads. We moved from section to section each month, like Gypsies. It was company policy. That way, we could all form a complete picture of what an elephant looked like.

I don't know what nonsense Aoki was peddling, but everyone bought it. I didn't even want to know what the story was; I knew it was dirt. No one in the entire school would speak to me. As if by consensus - it had to be - I got the silence treatment.(...) "People who go through a heavy experience like that are changed men, like it or not,"he said."They change for the better and they change for the worse. On the good side, they become unshakable. Next to that half year, the rest of the suffering I've experienced doesn't even count. I can put with almost anything. And I also am a lot more sensitive to the pain of people around me. That's on the plus side. It made me capable of making some real friends. But there's also the minus side. I mean, it's impossible, in my own mind, to believe in people."


"The elephant vanishes" do Haruki Murakami.