8/31 "Untitled"

Stockholm - Gamla stan

The footsteps of the crowds fall upon an expanse of rounded stones

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8/31

My ink has nearly run dry. I think I'll put the songs I've written while traveling in this box, along with some photos.

In this country, even just taking a picture of a single street corner creates a sense of nostalgia, somehow. My photography skills are completely nonexistent, but though there can be no god in these, I went ahead and printed them out.

Elma, the lyrics and melodies in this box all belong to you, so please, for me, use them however you'd like. I have no use for them anymore.


This is what I am, up to the very end. Nothing but my work, no matter how far I go; selfish, playing at pessimism, a hideous art-obsessed monster.


It's true - in the end, there was nothing for me but musi-

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3/14


When I leaned out over the windowsill, the sky looked so crystal clear that I suddenly thought of you, and decided I'd acknowledge your letter. That was the beginning of it all, it's true, but thinking about it now, it was probably also something close to escapism. Escaping from what, one might ask, but I'm sure you know. Society, connection, friends, work, life, etc. Everything, essentially. But before getting into all that - it may surprise you to hear, but recently, I learned to do chores. Before, I barely ever even turned on the washing machine! I guess people really do change, don't they, even if they only do so slowly.


It's just like you said, Elma. A single day is pitifully brief, but life is long. When I think about how the summer is going to come to an end like this, I get the feeling that even if I had 100 years, I'd never be able to make anything worthwhile. Actually, that part-time job I had for all that time - I quit. Last year, at the beginning of August.


Elma, I'm sure that most lives amount to nothing. 50 years of hard work will never be a match for 10 years of talent, and no amount of regret will make it possible to transform a failure into a success. Words are no answer to bullets. Illnesses aren't cured by miracles.


Even so, I always thought that music alone was different. After all, music is art, isn't it? It can't be contained by the words of those repulsive money-worshipers: "Make something for the sake of others. Something that can get better reviews!" It's as Oscar Wilde said - in no way is music just something reflected in a cracked looking glass.[1]

Art doesn't imitate life. Life "emulates" art.


But, there's something I've been thinking a lot recently. In the end, if I don't have a living, if I don't have a body to make things, nothing can come from me. No matter how much I struggle, everything that comes from me originates in my soul, my livelihood, my experiences, and so my art is completely bound to human life. As if it really is a mirror.

That means this is nothing more than a diary, Elma.

Surely, though, there must be art inside me. But it's very close to being what Oscar denied. Maybe that's why.

That contradiction has been painful to me, always. Music stopped being fun.


Elma, I wonder what you think of that.

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<--- Album Start

Indigo Squared (藍二乗)--->

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[1] Paraphrased from Oscar Wilde's 1891 essay "The Decay of Lying - An Observation".