Haruki Murakami

Translated by Jay Rubin

[1] One beautiful April morning, on a narrow side street in Tokyo’s fashionable Harajuku neighborhood, I walked past the 100% perfect girl.

[2] Tell you the truth, she’s not that good-looking.She doesn’t stand out in any way.Her clothes are nothing special.The back of her hair is still bent out of shape from sleep.She isn’t young, either — must be near thirty, not even close to a “girl”, properly speaking.But still, I know from fifty yards away: She’s the 100% perfect girl for me.The moment I see her, there’s a rumbling in my chest, and my mouth is as dry as a desert.

[3] Maybe you have your own particular favorite type of girl — one with slim ankles, say, or big eyes, or graceful fingers, or you’re drawn for no good reason to girls who take their time with every meal.I have my own preferences, of course.Sometimes in a restaurant I’ll catch myself staring at the girl at the next table to mine because I like the shape of her nose.

[4] But no one can insist that his 100% perfect girl correspond to some preconceived type.Much as I like noses, I can’t recall the shape of hers — or even if she had one.All I can remember for sure is that she was no great beauty.It’s weird.

[5] “Yesterday on the street I passed the 100% girl,” I tell someone.

[6] “Yeah?” he says.“Good-looking?”

[7] “Not really.”

[8] “Your favorite type, then?”

[9] “I don’t know.I can’t seem to remember anything about her — the shape of her eyes or the size of her breasts.”

[10] “Strange.”

[11] “Yeah.Strange.”

[12] “So anyhow,” he says, already bored, “what did you do? Talk to her? Follow her?”[13] “Nah.Just passed her on the street.”

[14] She’s walking east to west, and I west to east.It’s a really nice April morning.

[15] Wish I could talk to her.Half an hour would be plenty: just ask her about herself, tell her about myself, and — what I’d really like to do — explain to her the complexities of fate that have led to our passing each other on a side street in Harajuku on a beautiful April morning in 1981.This was something sure to be crammed full of warm secrets, like an antique clock build when peace filled the world.

[16] After talking, we’d have lunch somewhere, maybe see a Woody Allen movie, stop by a hotel bar for cocktails.With any kind of luck, we might end up in bed.

[17] Potentiality knocks on the door of my heart.

[18] Now the distance between us has narrowed to fifteen yards.

[19] How can I approach her? What should I say?

[20] “Good morning, miss.Do you think you could spare half an hour for a little conversation?”

[21] Ridiculous.I’d sound like an insurance salesman.

[22] “Pardon me, but would you happen to know if there is an all-night cleaner’s in the neighborhood?”

[23] No, this is just as ridiculous.I’m not carrying any laundry, for one thing.Who’s going to buy a line like that?

[24] Maybe the simple truth would do.“Good morning.You are the 100% perfect girl for me.”

[25] No, she wouldn’t believe it.Or even if she did, she might not want to talk to me.Sorry, she could say, I might be the 100% perfect girl for you, but you’re not the 100% boy for me.It could happen.And if I found myself in that situation, I’d probably go to pieces.I’d never recover from the shock.I’m thirty-two, and that’s what growing older is all about.

[26] We pass in front of a flower shop.A small, warm air mass touches my skin.The asphalt is damp, and I catch the scent of roses.I can’t bring myself to speak to her.She wears a white sweater, and in her right hand she holds a crisp white envelope lacking only a stamp.So: She’s written somebody a letter, maybe spent the whole night writing, to judge from the sleepy look in her eyes.The envelope could contain every secret she’s ever had.

[27] I take a few more strides and turn: She’s lost in the crowd.

[28] Now, of course, I know exactly what I should have said to her.It would have been a long speech, though, far too long for me to have delivered it properly.The ideas I come up with are never very practical.

[29] Oh, well.It would have started “Once upon a time” and ended “A sad story, don’t you think?”

[30] Once upon a time, there lived a boy and a girl.The boy was eighteen and the girl sixteen.He was not unusually handsome, and she was not especially beautiful.They were just an ordinary lonely boy and an ordinary lonely girl, like all the others.But they believed with their whole hearts that somewhere in the world there lived the 100% perfect boy and the 100% perfect girl for them.Yes, they believed in a miracle.And that miracle actually happened.

[31] One day the two came upon each other on the corner of a street.

[32] “This is amazing,” he said.“I’ve been looking for you all my life.You may not believe this, but you’re the 100% perfect girl for me.”

[33] “And you,” she said to him, “are the 100% perfect boy for me, exactly as I’d pictured you in every detail.It’s like a dream.”

[34] They sat on a park bench, held hands, and told each other their stories hour after hour.They were not lonely anymore.They had found and been found by their 100% perfect other.What a wonderful thing it is to find and be found by your 100% perfect other.It’s a miracle, a cosmic miracle.

[35] As they sat and talked, however, a tiny, tiny sliver of doubt took root in their hearts: Was it really all right for one’s dreams to come true so easily?

[36] And so, when there came a momentary lull in their conversation, the boy said to the girl, “Let’s test ourselves — just once.If we really are each other’s 100% perfect lovers, then sometime, somewhere, we will meet again without fail.And when that happens, and we know that we are the 100% perfect ones, we’ll marry then and there.What do you think?”

[37] “Yes,” she said, “that is exactly what we should do.”[38] And so they parted, she to the east, and he to the west.

[39] The test they had agreed upon, however, was utterly unnecessary.They should never have undertaken it, because they really and truly were each other’s 100% perfect lovers, and it was a miracle that they had ever met.But it was impossible for them to know this, young as they were.The cold, indifferent waves of fate proceeded to toss them unmercifully.

[40] One winter, both the boy and the girl came down with the season’s terrible influenza, and after drifting for weeks between life and death they lost all memory of their earlier years.When they awoke, their heads were as empty as the young D.H.Lawrence’s piggy bank.

[41] They were two bright, determined young people, however, and through their unremitting efforts they were able to acquire once again the knowledge and feeling that qualified them to return as full-fledged members of society.Heaven be praised, they became truly upstanding citizens who knew how to transfer from one subway line to another, who were fully capable of sending a special-delivery letter at the post office.Indeed, they even experienced love again, sometimes as much as 75% or even 85% love.

[42] Time passed with shocking swiftness, and soon the boy was thirty-two, the girl thirty.

[43] One beautiful April morning, in search of a cup of coffee to start the day, the boy was walking from west to east, while the girl, intending to send a specialdelivery letter, was walking from east to west, but along the same narrow street in the Harajuku neighborhood of Tokyo.They passed each other in the very center of the street.The faintest gleam of their lost memories glimmered for the briefest moment in their hearts.Each felt a rumbling in their chest.And they knew:

[44] She is the 100% perfect girl for me.

[45] He is the 100% perfect boy for me.

[46] But the glow of their memories was far too weak, and their thoughts no longer had the clarity of fourteen years earlier.Without a word, they passed each other, disappearing into the crowd.Forever.

[47] A sad story, don’t you think?

[48] Yes, that’s it.That is what I should have said to her.

[1981]

Notes

1. Haruki Murakami (村上春树 ): He, born in 1949 , is a Japanese writer and translator.His works of fiction and nonfiction have garnered critical acclaim and numerous awards, including the Franz Kafka Prize and the Jerusalem Prize.Murakami’s fiction, often criticized by Japan’s literary establishment, is humorous and surreal, focusing on themes of alienation and loneliness.He is considered an important figure in postmodern literature. The Guardian praised Murakami as “among the world’s greatest living novelists” for his works and achievements.

2. Harajuku: It is the common name for the area around Harajuku Station on the Yamanote Line in the Shibuya ward of Tokyo, Japan.Every Sunday, young people dressed in a variety of styles including gothic lolita, visual kei, and decora, as well as cosplayers spend the day in Harajuku socializing.The fashion styles of these youths rarely conform to one particular style and are usually a mesh of many.Most young people gather on Jingu Bridge, which is a pedestrian bridge that connects Harajuku to the neighboring Meiji Shrine area.

3. D.H.Lawrence’s piggy bank: Lawrence was an English novelist, poet, playwright, essayist, literary critic and painter.His collected works represent an extended reflection upon the dehumanizing effects of modernity and industrialization.In them, Lawrence confronts issues relating to emotional health and vitality, spontaneity, and instinct.

Piggy bank is the traditional name of a coin accumulation and storage receptacle; it is most often, but not exclusively, used by children.The expression refers to the fact that D.H.Lawrence was the son of a poor coal miner and attended school on a charitable scholarship.

After You Read

Knowledge Focus

1.Discuss the following questions with your partner.

1) How is the setting (season and location) of the story significant to the expression of the theme?

2) What kind of character is the narrator? What are the clues for the character analysis?

3) Is the narrator’s friend interested in the topic of seeing the 100% girl? How can you tell? What is his attitude toward the topic?

4) What actually makes the narrator think this is his 100% perfect girl?

5) What is your personal concept of the 100% perfect boy or girl?

6) Do you think the narrator’s prepared speech is appropriate for greeting the girl?

7) What could be proper to say on seeing the 100% perfect?

8) What message did the author intend to convey through the story?

9) Does the story impress you? What impresses you most?

2.Learn literary devices with your partner.

First Person Narrator: A text presented from the point of view of a character(esp.the protagonist) and written in the first person.

In On Seeing the 100% Perfect Girl One Beautiful April Morning, Haruki used the first person narrator to increase the depth of the description of modern people’s insight.Discuss the other artistic effects achieved by the first person narrator.

3.Discuss the following topic with your partner.

In this story, the protagonist has seen his 100% perfect girl, yet has no chance to even speak to her.Which situation is more pathetic, having met your perfect but doing nothing about it, or having never even seen your 100%?

Language Focus

1.Explain the following expressions and try to make up sentences based on them, and discuss with your partner whether they are used appropriately.

2.Study the following verbs and use a proper one to replace the italicized part in each sentence.

1) She cannot stand to the noise of airplanes roaring overhead, so she moved away.

2) When you have difficulties in making a decision, it is always effective to throw a coin.

3) Although we don’t want to admit it, things actually developed as he has predicted.

4) Though he was sitting in the classroom, his mind was wandering through the past memories.

5) China has called back its ambassador in that area because of the discrepancy over the control of the island.

6) She has naturally obtained the ability to communicate with westerners because of her experiences living abroad.

7) The general held the opinion strongly that the army should fight till the last soldier dies.

8) The certificates cannot enable him to work as a teacher.

9) It was really hard to get close to the dangerous criminal because of the deadly weapon he possessed.

10) The lake was shining under the moonlight.

3.Identify the errors and correct them.

4.Read the following sentences and summarize the grammatical function of the italicized parts.

1) The back of her hair is still bent out of shape from sleep.

2) You’re drawn for no good reason to girls who take their time with every meal.

3) This was something sure to be crammed full of warm secrets.

4) A proper line to say to your 100% perfect girl hasn’t been worked out yet.

5) When the boy passed the girl, he was struck by a rumbling feeling.

6) The moment of the meeting in front of the flower store was given great importance in his life.

7) It is believed that everyone has his or her 100% perfect partner waiting somewhere.

8) The boy was afraid that the girl would be scared by his greetings.

9) She has been made to be his 100% perfect girl since 16.

10) The boy is going to be considered as an unpractical guy by his friends.

5.Fill in each blank with the correct form of the given word.

1) Great changes ________ (take place) in his hometown since he left for his higher education.

2) The criminal who has robbed a bank and killed many people ________ (sentence) to________ (die) without doubt.

3) The new movie Ice Age ________ (show) in the theatre recent days, so would you like to see it?

4) The newly published detective novel is really a bestseller.It ________ (sell out) in many bookstores in the area.

5) Some books ________ (buy) as presents for these children when they came to visit the schools in town.

6) The manager questioned him about whether the letter ________ (send) out or not.

7) To their surprise, the prisoners ________ (leave) to get out freely last night.

8) The athlete ________ (ask) to give speeches here and there after he got back from the Olympic Games.

9) How many books can ________ (borrow) from your library every time?

10) If he still does nothing about the situation, he will be the next one ________ (kill) by the assassin.

Comprehensive Work

1.Group work: Dramatization.

Try to rewrite the story into a play.Choose some important and significant scenes and connect them naturally together without changing the theme and the author’s intention.

Role play it in groups.

2.Pair work: Shifting Narration Angle.

First Person Narration plays an important role in arousing the readers’consonance and depicting the character’s insight.

Work with the partner to work on the following task:

A.Change the story into third person narration, and compare the difference in the effects.

B.Use the third person narration to recreate the ending of the story, and try to make the plot surprising yet reasonable.

3.Comparison.

Compare On Seeing the 100% Perfect Girl by Haruki with The Red Rose and the White One by Eileen Chang to explore the concept of love and fate.

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