We Long to Move the Stars to Pity - Butane

Matsutake ya / Shiranu ko-no-ha no / Hebaritsuku

And that is, literally‚ that—well‚ not literally‚ just, word-for-word, it is:

«Pine mushroom—Matsutake

Ignorance—Shiranu

Leaf of tree—ko-no-ha no

Adhesiveness—Hebaritsuku»

And Blythe‚ in his book, translates it:

«The leaf of some unknown tree sticking on the mushroom»

And I showed this translation to a Japanese composer friend—I can’t remember

whether it was Ichiyanagi, or whether it was Takahashi—at any rate‚ when I

showed it to him he said he didn’t think that translation was very interesting.

And I said,⠀

«Well, how would you translate it?»

He said,⠀

«I'll let you know in a few days.»

Two days later he came back with a translation, and it was:

«Mushroom does not know that leaf is sticking on it»

(Crowd laughs)

Which is a little—what's the word?

Portentous?

I don’t know, does that mean

heavy?

«That that’s unknown brings mushroom and leaf together»

And then, finally, I got one that I prefer to all of them:

«What leaf?

What mushroom?»

Here we are now

I have the feeling, that we are getting nowhere

We are getting nowhere, and that is a pleasure