Apr 22, 2026
my translation of the 44th story (out of 99) of 夢で会いましょう [Meet Me in a Dream] by Haruki Murakami and Shigesato Itoi, not guaranteed to be accurate. see the intro post to read more!
Were any black cats to cross my path, I wouldn’t mind. I own a black cat, after all.
No: it’s days I lose the Nobel Prize I consider bad luck. Last year, for example, I put a quarter in a pay phone but my call didn’t go through. Worse, my quarter stuck and never tumbled back to me.
Days when I lose legs in bad car accidents: those are bad luck too. Last time that happened to me I dropped a hot dog not long after. Its meat went rolling down the asphalt.
Rainy days as well are never good—brand new umbrellas soaked right through.
Being mugged at midnight: what a horrible omen it always is! Last time I was robbed, I soon forgot to toss the compost.
What of entering a classroom, say, chock-full of the most beautiful coeds any eye could see? No good! Excitement overwhelms, one wets oneself.
No: but worst of all’s one’s dying day. Mine, for example, I happened to win the lottery, but I had no mortal way remaining to collect it.
translator's note: avid reader's will notice two quirks in my writing here which color the way this reads. 1) my overuse of the otherwise rare colon (punctuation) in these works, as a cheapo way of replicating the Japanese particle は (look it up if you must). I happen to like this construction in English and use it lots in my originals, but it tends to make this sound more Japanese than it would otherwise. 2) Itoi write with tongue-in-cheek indifference (not just here, where thats the joke), and in attempting to match that I go for voicy. Unfortunately, here I betray myself a "country boy", at least in origin. Pretend my slang ain't dated. Pretend its 28 years old and cool.