Articles Culture Reflections Shuji Terayama

Dead People Turn Into Words

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Shuji Terayama  was born  on December 10th 1935  and died on April 4th 1983. He would have been 80 years old next week.

The dreams you dream when you’re asleep always end when you wake up. If you want a dream that won’t end, the thing to do is die. 

death is

cicadas 

in the summer rain

crying out for dreams

Shuji Terayama, from Fond Memories of my House

 

from the day of my death

the clock ticks time backwards

not yet reaching the present

Shuji Terayama; from To Die in the Country

 

“What thing exists but can never be seen?”

“Well… that’s the underworld, the other world.  What can be seen but doesn’t really exist – that’s this world. The other world… you can’t actually see it but it’s there…”

Shuji Terayama, from Terror Mountain.

playing hide-and-seek

count to three

and it’s winter

Shuji Terayama, from To Die in the Country

 

I dreamed that I was dreaming. “What  I thought of as reality turned out to be a dream. What I thought of as a dream turned out to be reality.” That is the dream I dreamed.

Shuji Terayama, from Hollow Earth Theory.

 

“The next-door town doesn’t exist. The great black dragonfly is a liar. If you close both eyes, everything disappears. The next-door town is nowhere to be found. After a hundred years you’ll understand what I mean. Come back in a hundred years’ time.”

Shuji Terayama, from Farewell to the Ark

 

playing hide-and-seek

I was never released from the role of “it”

and so grew old

who shall I seek

at the village festival

Shuji Terayama, from To Die in the Countryside

 

In the underworld, people age the other way round. Gradually the day of their birth grows nearer and nearer. 

Shuji Terayama, from The Kyushu Scrolls.

 

Dead people all turn into words.

Shuji Terayama,  from Chronicle of Hell.