Les enfants se disputent un concombre.
Mourir non de faim, mais de trop-plein.
***
A day passed. Two days passed. Then, three days passed.
Food was all around, but she lost her appetite. She fasted.
After three consecutive days of fasting, just drinking water and not feeling hungry, she felt healthier; her body was lighter. Miraculous.
The time of poverty and rags passed. She craved rice with a cucumber dipped in soy sauce. Unfortunately, her family didn’t have enough money to buy even a few cucumbers, so they had to fight over a single one that her uncle had borrowed money to buy. Each of the three sisters got only a small piece.
On the fourth day, today, while she was slicing a cucumber, she suddenly remembered her past.
In that period, although the entire society was poor, warmth and genuine concern for one another filled the air.
She recalled the fragrant taste of the cucumber, which had a mild bitterness at both ends but was sweet in the middle.
Yet today’s cucumber, when she ate it, tasted so different. It was unsweetened and lacked that rich, fragrant flavor. As she swallowed it, deep down in her throat, she felt an astringent taste, a strange bitterness, and much, much more bitter than before.
Thank you for reading.
Yoshiko Amemiya
December 18, 2025