Tony Takitani

There was something odd for him about not feeling lonely. The very fact that he had ceased to be lonely caused him to fear the possibility of becoming lonely again.

Each memory was now the shadow of a shadow of a shadow. The only thing that remained tangible to him was the sense of absence.

By marrying her, Tony Takitani brought the lonely period of his life to an end. When he awoke in the morning, the first thing he did was look for her. When he found her sleeping next to him, he felt relief. When she wasn't there, he felt anxious and searched the house for her. There was something odd for him about not feeling lonely. The very fact that he had ceased to be lonely caused him to fear the possibility of becoming lonely again.

Life: I’ll never understand it.

To him, they looked like shadows that his wife had left behind. Size 7 shadows of his wife hung there in long rows, layer upon layer, as if someone had gathered and hung up samples of the infinite possibilities (or at least the theoretically infinite possibilities) implied in the existence of a human being.

The next thing that caught his attention was her clothes. He generally took no particular interest in what people wore, but there was something so wonderful about the way this girl dressed that it made a deep impression on him; indeed, one could even say it moved him. There were plenty of women around who dressed elegantly, and plenty more who dressed to impress, but this girl was different. Utterly different. She wore her clothes with such naturalness and grace that she could have been a bird that had enveloped itself in a special wind as it prepared to fly off to another world. He had never seen a woman wear her clothes with such apparent joy.

They went on a few dates after that. They didn't go anywhere in particular, just found quiet places to sit and talk for hours - about their pasts, about their work, about the way they thought or felt about this or that. They never seemed to tire of talking. It was as if they were filling up each other's emptiness.

Je me demande ce que ça fait de mourir en laissant autant de belles choses derrière soi.

Il me faut une période de transition. Et, pendant ce temps, votre présence près de moi avec les vêtements de ma femme me sera nécessaire. Je pense qu’ainsi je devrais parvenir à intégrer le fait que ma femme est bel et bien morte.

Son unique frère était porté disparu sur lefront de Birmanie. Pourtant, Shozaburo Takitani n’en ressentit pas un chagrin très intense. Il éprouvait naturellement un sentiment de perte, mais la nouvelle ne lui avait pas causé de choc particulier. Après tout, songeait-il, on finit tous seuls un jour ou l’autre. Il allait alors sur ses trente ans. Ce n’est pas un âge où on peut se plaindre de la solitude. Il lui sembla avoir vieilli de plusieurs années d’un coup. Mais ce fut tout. Aucune autre émotion ne le traversa.