πLife Ceremony, by Sayaka Murata,
πTranslated by Ginny Tapley Takemori
πFirst Published - July 5. 2022
αျαα်αိုααော့ αα‘ုα်αဲαွα်αဲ့αာ ααုα်αဲ ၊ αα္αုαို αα္αုαα်αွေ αို αိုးα‘αα် αα္ααα်းαွေαှာ α‘αα်းαα်αော်αြαဲ့αာαို့αα်း αိုαα် ။
α‘α်္ααိα်αာαာαြα်αှာαော့ αα်αα်းαα်း၊ αူαာ၊αα့်αော်αာ αα္αုαို ၊αα္αုαα်αွေ αို αွေαို αေါα်းαြီး αီα ာα‘ုα် αုα်αဲ့ααောαြα ်αα် ။
αီα ာα‘ုα်αာ αီαှာ αာαာαြα်αွα်αြီးαား "Convenience Store Woman" α ာα‘ုα်αဲ့ ααူαါαူး ။ αောα် αွα်αဲ့ α ာα‘ုα် Earthlings αဲ့ αိုαူαα် ။ αα္αုαိုαွေαာ αြα်းαα်၊ αူးαα်းαα်၊
α‘αိုα်းαα်αဲ့ ααောαှိαα် ။
α‘αွေးα‘αေါ်αα်αα်းαα်းαဲ့ αေးαားαဲ့ αα္αုαို αααုα် αါ αါαα်။
- Two’s Family αα္αုαိုαေး αα်းαောα်းαα် ။
- A Summer Night's Kiss "αှာαိုαα် αိα်αှု့αိα ္α ααြုαဲ ααေးαူαားαြαဲ့ Yoskiko αဲ့ Kikue αိုαဲ့ α‘αျိုးααီးαှα ်αောα် αဲ့ friendship..
- “A First-Rate Material" αှာαိုαα် α‘ဲ့αာααှာ αူαွေαာ αွα်αွα်αြီး αူαားαဲ့ α‘αိုး၊α‘αေαြား ၊αံαα် αို recycled αုα်αားαဲ့ α‘αုံးα‘αောα်αα ္α α်းαွေαို αှα ်αα်ααောαျ αုံးα ွဲαြαα်။ αုံαα်းαွα်αြα်αေါ် αူαα်αြီး αα်αိုးαα်း αြα့်αα် ။ αွα်αွα်αူ αူαားαွေαဲ့ α‘αိုး αံαα်αဲ့ αုα်αားαဲ့ αα်α‘ုα် α‘αိုးα‘ိα်αဲ့ αုα်αားαဲ့ α ားαွဲ၊ αေαွားαဲ့ αူαဲ့ αံαα်αျα်αဲ့ αုα်αားαဲ့ αွα်αာ ၊αို့ααျα်းαိုးαဲ့ αုα်αားαဲ့ αိုα်αုံ၊ αα်αα‘αိုးαဲ့ αုα်αားαဲ့ αာαီ ၊ α‘ဲ့αို α‘αုံးα‘αောα် αα ္α α်းαျိုးαွေ αα်αα် αောα်αူααာ ααောαျαဲ့α‘αျိုးααီး၊ αူαဲ့ α ေ့α α်αားαဲ့ α‘αျိုးαားα α‘ဲ့αို αα ္α α်းαျိုးαွေαို ααှα ်αα်၊ αွံαှာαူ ၊ α‘αျိုးααီးα α‘ဲ့αို αα ္α α်းαျိုးαွေ αှα ်αα်αဲ့α‘αွα် α ေ့α α်αα်α ွα်αှာ αြαΏαာαα်αြီး ၊ α ေ့α α်αားαာ ααောα်αααြα ်ααဲ့ α ုံαွဲαဲ့ αုα္α ။
- "Poochie" αα္αုαိုαှာ αိုαα် α ီးαွားαေးαုα်αα်းαှα်αောα်း αα်αα်αိုα်း αူαα ်αောα်αို α‘ိα်αွေးαိαα ္αာα်αို αွေးαားαဲ့ αူααα်း αျောα်းαူ αှα ်αောα် α‘αြောα်း ။
- αီαဲαှာ ααောαျαဲ့ αα္αုαα် ααုα်αြα ်αဲ့ "Life Ceremony"..
αီαဲα αာα်αောα်αေαဲ့αာααှာ αူαွေαာ αွα်αဲ့αဲ့ αှα ်αα ၊ αူ ααေးααα‘αွα်ααော့ αွα်αွα်αူαဲ့ α‘αား၊ αူαားα ားαာααှိαဲ့αြαူး ။αှα ်αααျော်αြီးαဲ့αောα်αှာαော့ Funeral α‘αုα α‘α ား၊ Life Ceremony αုα်αဲ့ α‘αေ့α‘α αြα ်αာαြαα် ။ old fashioned αα်းα‘αိုα်း α‘αုα αုα်αဲ့αူαွေαα်း αှိαα်။
α‘αှα်းαုံးαြောααα် αွα်αွα်αူαဲ့ α‘αားαို Life Ceremony (αို့)α‘αုα αာαဲ့αူαွေαို αျα်αြုα်αျွေးαွေးαိုα်αာ ။ α‘αျားα
ုααော့ α‘αုα αုα်αျ α
αိα် αα်αာα‘ောα် Life Ceremony αှာ αျα်αြုα်αျွေးαွေး αြαα် ။
Life Ceremony αှာ α ုံαွဲαွေ (αါαှααုα်) Life Ceremony αို αာαြαဲ့ α§α့်αα်αဲααဲ αွေးαြီးαော့ αိα်αှု့αα်αံαာαိုαα်း αွα့်αြုαြαα် ။
I wonder how many inseminations will happen tonight? I do hope lots of new lives will be created!”
Guests at a life ceremony would eat the deceased’s body, and also seek an insemination partner among the other guests.
Based on the idea of birthing life from death, this ceremony was a perfect fit for the mentality of the masses and their unconscious obsession with breeding.
Human flesh has quite a strong smell and taste, so it isn’t considered suitable for simple grilling with a little salt and pepper. Most people thoroughly parboil it, then add it to a hotpot with vegetables and plenty of miso for flavor. And it is common to have a specialist company help with the preparation.
α‘ဲ့αွα်αွα်αူ αဲ့ α‘αားαွေαို αီαိုαα်းαျို αို့၊ αော့αေါ့ αို့αဲ αα့် ၊ α‘αီးα‘αွα် αα်းαα်αွှေးα‘αြိုα် α‘αွားαα်αြီး αြုαုα် α§α့်αံαြαα် ။
“It’s not that I hold a grudge particularly. It’s just that thirty years ago a completely different sense of values was the norm, and I just can’t keep up with the changes. I kind of feel like I’ve been betrayed by the world.”
Even now that eating human flesh had become mainstream, there was still a deeply rooted faction opposed to it and groups campaigned against it, saying it was unethical.
It was dinnertime, and cooking smells hung in the air all around. No doubt Mr. Nakao’s flesh being boiled was mixed in with them.
“Thank you, everyone, for coming to my husband’s life ceremony,” Mrs. Nakao said, opening the lids of the hotpots to reveal Mr. Nakao, boiled together with Chinese cabbage, enoki mushrooms, and other vegetables. “Please partake of his life, and create new life.”
αွα်αွα်αူαဲ့ α‘αားαို α‘αα်αွေးαဲααု α‘ာαာααြα ်αို့ αုံးαောα်α ေαဲ့ααောαေါ့ ။
Everybody held their hands together and gave thanks for the meal, then began tucking into Mr. Nakao, praising him as they took neat, thin slices of his meat to their mouths.
“Delicious! Mrs. Nakao, your husband is really tasty.”
Mrs. Nakao dabbed her eyes with a handkerchief upon hearing these words. “That’s right. My husband will be pleased, too,” she said. “These parts over here are the ones closest to the innards, and really tasty. Please do eat them up. You youngsters, eat as much life as you can, then get on with insemination.”
α‘ဲ့αေα်αာα ααုαှာ αူαားαွေαဲ့ αိα်αα်αံαှု့αုံα ံαဲ့ ααေးαွေးαွားαြီး αော့ ααေးαွေαို αြီးαြα်းα‘ောα် α ောα့်αှောα်αဲ့ αုံα ံ αွာαြားαွားαုံαိုαα်း αွေ့αြα်αိုα်αα် ။
Children conceived during insemination were mostly raised in a family, but recently there were more and more cases where nobody knew who the child’s father was. This was particularly true of pregnancies that followed life ceremonies. But the priority was to increase the population, so everyone was happy about the children born in these circumstances too.
As a result, centers were set up to take care of children so that women could carry on working while also producing children whenever they wanted to. After giving birth in the hospital within the center itself, some mothers simply left the baby there while others took the baby home for a while and delivered it to the center later. Roughly half of the children were raised in a family, and half were left as babies for the center to raise.
At the centers, children were carefully raised as children of the human race, not of individual parents.
“Have some veggies too,” I commented. “It’s not good for you to eat only meat.”
“No way. Omnivorous animals aren’t supposed to taste very good, are they?
πΆ️Instinct doesn’t exist. Morals don’t exist. They were just fake sensibilities that came from a world that was constantly transforming. πΆ️
“Anyway. Eat delicious food, enjoy life, and taste good when I die so that those who eat me can summon the energy to give birth to new life. I don’t think that’s such a bad life.
“I really like Disneyland, you know.”
“Ugh.” I screwed up my face. “I hate it.”
“What about the real world? Where the hell is that, then?”
“It’s the mirage that’s real. All our little lies are gathered together and become a reality that you can see only now.”
“I don’t understand. I don’t want to understand!”
Maybe the world hadn’t just started transforming recently and we had been continually changing long before thirty years ago.
Iketani αဲα‘αူ Mr.Nakoαဲ့ α‘αုααှာ α‘αူα αားαα်αုံαျαဲ့αဲ့ αုα်αော်αိုα်αα် Yamamoto αာ αီααα်α‘αွα်းαှာαဲ αားαိုα်αံααြီးαေαွားαြောα်း αိαိုα်ααα် ။
αေαွားαဲ့α‘αα်αααှα ်α‘αွα် α‘αα်αုαု၊ αြα့်αြα့်αြိုးαြိုး αေαα့် αြα့်αောα်းαဲ့ α‘αွα်α‘αြα်αှိαဲ့ Yamamoto αဲ့ αα္αာαိုα်αှာ αα်αာαြီးαြီးαားαားααှိαဲ့αူး။ αေါα်းαိ ၊αျα်αောα်းαိαြီး αေαွားαဲ့αာαိုး ။
αုα်αော်αိုα်αα်αွေα Yamamoto αဲ့ Life Ceremony αို αီα αျα်းααှာ αြα
်αြောα်း
Iketani αိုαြောαြαα် ။Yamamotoαဲ့ α‘αေααα်း Iketani αို αူ့αားαဲ့ Life Ceremony αွဲαို αာαို့αိα်αα် ။
“Well, we’re planning to start around six p.m., but it might have to be a bit later . . .”
“Oh, really?”
“Er, would you like me to come and help?”
“What?”
“Yamamoto was a friend, so . . . please do let me help,” .
αေαွားαဲ့ Yamamoto αိုαα်း αျှော့ααွα်αဲ့ ။
αူαေαွားαα် αူ့α‘αားαို α
ားαုံးαူαွေ α‘ααာαှိα‘ောα် αα်αိုαျα်αြုα်αααဲ αိုαာ recipe α‘αိα‘αျαေးαဲ့αာ ။ Yamamoto α α‘α
ားααား၊
"αီαို αောαေါ့ "αောα်αော့ αူ့α‘αားαို ααျα်αြုα်α
ေαျα်αူး။
αူ့α‘αားαို α‘αားαုံး αုံးαြီး αူ့αဲ့Life Ceremony αှာ αာα
ားαူαွေαို " grated daikon hotpot" αှ αျွေးαျα်αာ ။
I should have asked the professionals to do the cooking for us too, but it was a bit difficult for various reasons, and we decided to do it ourselves . . .”
“What do you mean, difficult?”
“Grated daikon hotpot . . .?”
I mean, that boy was such a foodie. He always was fussy about food, and it’s no different with the meal we are to make with his flesh. It isn’t just hotpot, you know. Stir-fry with cashew nuts, braised meat . . .”
“What? Not just hotpot?”
“That’s right. I want to respect his will as much as possible, but really, it’s a tall order!”
“Can I see the recipes?”
I looked at the file she held out for me. It contained numerous recipes on loose-leaf paper, organized according to ingredients. It was just like Yamamoto, a keen cook who loved food, to do something like this, I thought. There were numerous headings, such as pork, chicken, salmon, cabbage, daikon, and so forth, and at the very end was a final category: “My flesh.”
Yamamoto αဲ့ α‘αားαို Grated daikon hotpot αα်αိုαျα်ααဲ αα်αα်αိုα်αα‘ောα်...
All the difficult jobs, like draining his blood, skinning him, removing his innards, and processing waste and the part around his anus and so forth had been done by the professionals, and what was in the boxes was Yamamoto turned into meat on the bone. Normally the flesh was removed from the bone and sliced thinly, ready to put into the hotpot; this was the first time I’d ever seen human flesh prepared in various shapes and forms.
you could still make out the form of Yamamoto in the meat. He and I had often gone out drinking together, and now, as I stripped the flesh from the bone, I remembered his strong, hairy arms lifting his beer glass.
“Ouch, that’s hot.”
“It’s the first time I’ve ever cooked human meat,” I said. “It’s chunky, isn’t it? The only time I’ve seen raw human meat at a life ceremony, it had already been cut into thin slices.”
“Oh, really? Yes, it is chunky. Not like chicken or something. You can use milk to get rid of the smell, you know. It might be a good idea to soak it awhile before braising it.”
Together we put Yamamoto into bowls, added some starch, onions, sake, and so forth, and then kneaded him before making him into a heap of meatballs. Meanwhile, his sister grated several large daikon radishes.
His mother had put two large pots of water on to boil. After seasoning the water with grated ginger, soup stock, and sake, we checked the flavor, then started putting in the meatballs.
Lastly we added enoki mushrooms, grated daikon, and mizuna, followed by sliced green onions and Chinese cabbage.
There wasn’t quite enough grated daikon, so I was grating some more when a pleasant aroma rose from the frying pan. Yamamoto’s sister was making the cashew-nut stir-fry.
You’re a good cook, aren’t you,” I said.
“It’s my hobby,” she said
Yamamoto αဲ့ α‘αား α ားαြα့်αα် ။
I picked up my chopsticks, placed an entire Yamamoto meatball steeped in broth in my mouth, and gently chewed.
The meat juices spread through my mouth, filling it with different flavors: the acidity of the yuzu juice, the fresh-mouth feel of the grated daikon, and the mellow yet full flavor of the meat, stronger than beef or pork but not as gamy as wild boar.
“Oof, it’s hot!” I huffed with my mouth open, relishing the taste. It was not at all strong-tasting, as we had prepared it so thoroughly, nor was it gristly, despite being ground meat.
αီ α ာα‘ုα်αဲαှာα gender roles , taboo, sex, cannibalism, dead body, body horror, αါααို Humor αα်းαα်းαါαα် ။
Convenience Store Woman αဲ့αော့ αုံးαααူαါαူး။
"Earthlings" αြိုα်αα် αီα
ာα‘ုα်αိုαြိုα်αိα့်αα် ။
αိုα်ααော့ ααောαျαါαα် ။
α‘αွှα်း αα်αဲ့αူαဲαှာ αုα်αေαူαော၊ αာαာαြα်αူαော၊ αုံαှα် α ာαα်αူαော αါαာαို့ αုံαှα်α‘αွေး α‘αေါ်ααေ αွဲαွα်αဲ့ αူးαူးαα်းαα်း α‘αွေး α‘αေါ်αျိုးαှ αα်αျα်αူαွေ၊ αုံαှα်αဲ့ ααူ αွဲαွα်αေαဲ့ αျαα်αα္αုαှ αာαာαြα်αျα်αူαွေ α‘αွα် αα့်αော်αဲ့ α ာα‘ုα်αါ ။
7 September 2022
Life Ceremony, by Sayaka Murata
Book Review by BookishInFictionLand
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