[quote]My mother uses the childhood name as a sort of verbal spear to ambush my adult self with a serious question about the preparations I’ve made for my own demise and for that of my son, Akari. So the meaning of her section of the poem is, essentially, that the most important thing I need to do in order to prepare for my own death is to get Akari ready for his trip to the forest, which may well precede mine.[/quote]

[indent][color=gray]— Kenzaburo Oe, [i]Death by Water[/i][/color][/indent]