4 The Night of the Centaur Festival

by Kenji Miyazawa

Giovanni came down the slope of the town of darkened cypress trees, with a lonely expression as if whistling.

At the bottom of the slope, a large streetlamp stood, emitting a pale blue light. As Giovanni descended further towards the streetlamp, his shadow, which had been vaguely trailing behind him like a monster, gradually became darker and more distinct, circling around beside Giovanni, raising its feet and waving its hands.

(I am a magnificent locomotive. This is a steep grade, so I'm fast. Now I'll pass that electric light. Yes, this time my shadow is a compass. It spun around like that and came to the front.)

Thinking this, Giovanni strode past the streetlamp. Then, suddenly, Zanelli from earlier in the day, wearing a new pointed-collar shirt, emerged from a dark alley on the other side of the streetlamp and swiftly brushed past Giovanni.

"Zanelli, are you going to the snake gourd festival?" Giovanni began to say, when at that moment,

"Giovanni, a otter fur coat is coming from your father!" Zanelli shouted from behind.

Giovanni felt a chill in his chest, and it seemed as if his surroundings rang with a sharp sound.

"What was that, Zanelli!" he shouted back loudly, but Zanelli had already entered the house with the cypress trees on the other side.

(Why does Zanelli say such things when I'm not doing anything? Even though he runs like a mouse. He says such things when I'm not doing anything because Zanelli is an idiot.)

Giovanni, lost in thought, passed through the town beautifully adorned with colorful lights and tree branches. Bright neon lights illuminated the clock shop, where the red eyes of a stone owl rotated every second, and various jewels, placed on a thick, sea-colored glass plate, slowly revolved like stars. From the other side, a bronze centaur slowly approached. In its center, a round black star chart was decorated with blue asparagus leaves.

Giovanni gazed intently at the star chart. It was much smaller than the one he had seen at school during the day, but when he rotated the dial to match the current day and time, the sky of that moment appeared within the oval. In its center, the Milky Way stretched like a hazy band from top to bottom, and in the lower part, it faintly seemed to be exploding and steaming. Behind it, a small telescope with three legs stood glowing yellow, and on the very back wall hung a large chart depicting the constellations in the sky as strange beasts, snakes, fish, and bottles. "Are there really so many scorpions and warriors packed into the sky? Oh, I wish I could walk through them endlessly," he thought, standing blankly for a while.

Suddenly remembering his mother's milk, Giovanni left the shop. He then walked through the town, deliberately puffing out his chest and swinging his arms widely, despite being bothered by the tight shoulders of his jacket.

The air was clear and flowed through the streets and shops like water. All the streetlights were wrapped in blue maple and oak branches, and the six plane trees in front of the electric company had many small light bulbs, making the place truly look like a city of mermaids. The children, all dressed in new, creased kimonos, were happily playing, whistling star-songs, shouting "Centaurus, let the dew fall!", and burning blue magnesium fireworks. However, Giovanni had somehow bowed his head deeply and was hurrying towards the milk shop, thinking of something completely different from the surrounding hustle and bustle.

Giovanni had unknowingly arrived at a place where several tall poplar trees on the outskirts of town floated high against the starry sky. He passed through the black gate of the milk shop and stood in front of the dimly lit kitchen, which smelled of cows. Giovanni took off his hat and,

said, "Good evening," but the house was silent, and it seemed no one was home.

"Good evening, excuse me," Giovanni shouted again, standing straight. After a while, an old woman slowly came out, looking somewhat unwell, and mumbled something about what he wanted.

"Um, the milk didn't come to my place today, so I came to get it," Giovanni said earnestly.

"No one is here right now, so I don't know. Please come tomorrow," the woman said, rubbing under her red eyes and looking down at Giovanni.

"My mother is sick, so it has to be tonight."

"Then, please come back a little later," the woman said, already about to leave.

"I see. Thank you then," Giovanni said, bowing, and left the kitchen.

When I was about to turn the corner of the cross-shaped town, I saw six or seven students, their black shadows and faint white shirts intertwined, whistling and laughing, each carrying a snake gourd lantern, coming from in front of the general store on the way to the bridge across the street. Their laughter and whistling were all familiar. They were Giovanni's classmates. I instinctively flinched and started to turn back, but then I changed my mind and walked towards them with even more vigor.

When Giovanni was about to say, "Are you going to the river?" he felt a slight catch in his throat.

"Giovanni, the otter coat is coming!" Zanelli, from earlier, shouted again.

"Giovanni, here comes the otter's jacket!" everyone immediately shouted in succession. Giovanni turned bright red, no longer knowing if he was walking, and hurried to pass by, but among them was Campanella. Campanella smiled silently, looking a little pitiful, and gazed at Giovanni as if wondering if he would be angry.

Giovanni instinctively averted his eyes and watched Campanella's tall figure pass by. Then, his friends around him began to whistle. As he turned the corner of the town, he looked back and saw Zanelli looking at him in the same way. And Campanella, too, walked away towards the dimly visible bridge, whistling loudly.

At that moment, Giovanni was overcome by an indescribable loneliness and suddenly started running. Then, small children, covering their ears and shouting "Wah wah" while hopping on one foot, mistook Giovanni's actions as an attempt to entertain them and cheered, "Yay!"

Giovanni continued to run, quickening his pace towards the black hill.