Scene 13

The longer this mission lasted, the less Maille understood what it actually was about. What did Hing expect to achieve with his mad travels across the planet – and why was V-Man Aral staging such a paper chase for him? Was there a secret sense to the drama that he did not understand, or was it just an attempt to keep him occupied? Did someone want to prevent him from returning to his home? But why? When the cat is away, the mice will play. But was he the cat? And who were the mice?

Everything in this story seemed to be repeating itself episode after episode, in ever-new variations. Only he remained himself. Or had he? Was he the same man who, some months earlier, had stood on the corniche of Dakar, watching the play of his own shadow on the breakers, supremely confident that he would return within a few hours to Santa Lemusa, with the kidnapped professor firmly in his bag? In the middle of the 19th century the Japanese cavalier Ariwara had written a verse, that seemed to suit perfectly into Mailles situation:

Tsuki ya aranu
haru ya mukashi no
haru naranu
waga mi hitosu wa
moto no mini shite

Is the moon quite another?
Is the spring not the spring
of the days gone by?
Only I alone, this body
remain the same as before?

Poem and German translation from: «Gäbe es keine Kirschblüten…». Stuttgart: Reclam Verlag, 2009. S. 35. Listen to how the poem sounds in Japanese.

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