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Morton Marcus: This is Central Coast Public Radio, KUSP Santa Cruz, KBDH San Ardo, we're on the web at KUSP.org. And good evening, everybody, this is a voice that is, of course, familiar to you, this is Mort Marcus. And tonight I'm helping

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Billie Harris out and I'm going to read a fascinating story to you in honor of the 13th Pacific Rim Film Festival. And if you are new to the area, I will tell you a little bit about the festival. If you are not new to the area, mark the dates because

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this coming Friday, November 1st through next Tuesday, which will be November 5th at the Del Mar Theatre in the grand auditorium downstairs, there is going to be the 13th Annual Pacific Rim Film Festival. We've had a two year hiatus, but we are back. And the

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first thing you should know about the Pacific Rim Film Festival is that it is absolutely free. You just come for serve- first come first serve and you're getting to see more than 85% of these films have never been shown in the

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United States before, and none of them have been shown in Santa Cruz. So do come to the Pacific Rim Film Festival. The newspapers will be telling you the times, we will start the first show at seven o'clock on Friday. And then we will run

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from one o'clock in the afternoon to seven o'clock shows and 9:30 shows all the way through Tuesday. These films are from Japan, they are from China, they are from India, and they are of amazing variety, and a lot of them are great films. And

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the Pacific Rim Film Festival brings them over here to promote the understanding of Asian cultures, to understanding the cultures around the Pacific Rim. So do come and do enjoy this wonderful opportunity in what will be our new home which is

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the auditorium once every year, the auditorium of the Del Mar Theater. Now, in honor of that I want to read a story by Ryunosuke Akutagawa called "In a Grove." And many of you may have seen

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the motion picture that was made from, "In a Grove." It was a film called "Rashomon" and it was the first international success of Japanese film back in the early 50s, and it really showed the rest of the world the great films that were being made

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in Japan and actually, made in Japan for more than twenty-five years at that time. But this one won a special prize at the Venice Film Festival and it was about a crime. And you saw the story, saw it because it was a film, from the viewpoints of the

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different people who were the victims and the victimizers and who took part in one way or another of that crime. The story takes place in medieval Japan, there is a samurai involved in it and a thief and the samurai's wife. And all of these parts of

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the story are told in testimonies given to what we would call the district attorney, but here is called the high police commissioner, and various people make their statements. And what I want you to listen for is who is telling

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the truth. What does each person have to hide or lie about? If they do. So you'll have to listen very carefully to the words of these testimonies because they are revealing both character and they may be revealing more than that. So in

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many ways, this is a whodunit that you take part in. I should also tell you that it was believed in medieval Japan that the dead could speak again, through a medium and so the last testimony will be the testimony of the dead man. Without further

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ado then, I go into Ryunosuke Akutagawa's great short story: IN A GROVE THE TESTIMONY OF A WOODCUTTER QUESTIONED BY THE HIGH POLICE COMMISSIONER

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Yes sir, certainly it was I who found the body. This morning as usual, I went to cut my daily quota of cedars when I found the body in a grove in a hollow in the mountains. The exact location? About a hundred and fifty meters off the Yamashina

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Stage Road, it's an out of the way grove of bamboo and cedars. The body was lying flat on its back dressed in a blueish silk kimono and a wrinkled headdress of the Kyoto style. A single sword stroke, it pierced the breast. The fallen bamboo blades

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around it were stained with bloody blossoms. No, the blood was no longer running, the wound had dried up I believe, and also a fly was stuck fast there, hardly noticing my footsteps. You ask me if I saw a sword or any such thing? No, nothing,

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sir. I found only a rope at the root of a cedar nearby and well, in addition to a rope, I found a comb, that was all. Apparently he must have made a battle of it before he was murdered because the grass and fallen bamboo blades had been trampled down

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all around. Was there a horse nearby? No, sir. It's hard enough for a man to enter, let alone a horse. THE TESTIMONY OF A TRAVELING BUDDHIST PRIEST QUESTIONED BY A HIGH POLICE COMMISSIONER

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The time, certainly it was about noon yesterday, sir. The unfortunate man was on the road from Sekiyama to Yamashina. He was walking towards Sekiyama with a woman accompanying him on horseback, who I have since learned was his wife. The scarf

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hanging from her head hid her face from view. All I saw was the color of her clothes, a lilac colored suit. Her horse was a sorrel with a fine mane. The lady's height? Oh, about four feet five inches. Since I am a Buddhist priest, I took

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little notice about her details. Well, the man was armed with a sword as well as a bow and arrows, and I remember that he carried some twenty odd arrows in his quiver. Little did I expect that he would meet such a fate. Truly life is evanescent

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as the morning dew or a flash of lightning. My words are inadequate to express my sympathy for him. THE TESTIMONY OF A POLICE MAN QUESTIONED BY THE HIGH POLICE COMMISSIONER

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The man that I arrested, he is a notorious brigand called Tajomaru. When I arrested him, he had fallen off his horse. He was groaning on the bridge at Awataguchi. The time? It was in the early hours of last night. For the record, I might say that

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the other day I tried to arrest him but unfortunately he escaped. He was wearing a dark blue silk kimono and a large plain sword, and as you can see, he got a bow and arrow somewhere. You say that this bow and arrows look like the ones

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owned by the dead man? Then Tajomaru must be the murderer. The bow wound with leather strips, the black-lacquered quiver, the seventeen arrows with hawk feathers, these were all in his possession, I believe. Yes, sir. The horse is

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as you say, a sorrel with a fine mane. A little beyond the stone bridge I found the horse grazing by the roadside with his long reign dangling. Surely, there is some providence in Tajomaru's having been thrown by the horse. Of all the robbers prowling

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around Kyoto, this Tajomaru has given the most grief to the women in town. Last autumn, a wife who came to the mountain back of the Pindora of the Toribe temple, presumably to pay a visit, was murdered along with a girl. It has been suspected

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that it was Tajomaru's doing. If this criminal murdered the man, you cannot tell what he may have done with the man's wife. May it please your honor to look into this problem as well. THE TESTIMONY OF AN OLD WOMAN QUESTIONED BY A HIGH POLICE

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COMMISSIONER Yes, sir. That corpse is the man who married my daughter. He does not come from Kyoto, he was a samurai in the town of Kokufu in the province of Wakasa. His name was Kanazawa No Takehiko and his

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age was twenty-six. He was of a gentle disposition, so I am sure he did nothing to provoke the anger of others. My daughter, her name is Masago and her age is nineteen. She is a spirited, fun loving girl, but I am sure she has never known any man

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except Takehiko. She has a small, oval, dark-complected face with a mole on the corner of her left eye. Yesterday, Takehiko left for Wakasa with my daughter. What bad luck it is the thing should have come to such a sad end. What has become

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of my daughter? I am resigned to giving up my son in law as lost, but the fate of my daughter worries me sick. For heaven's sake, leave no stone unturned to find her. I hate that robber, Tajomaru, or whatever his name is, not only my son in law, but

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my daughter. TAJOMARU'S CONFESSION TO HIGH POLICE COMMISSIONER I killed him but not her. Where's she gone? I can't tell. Oh, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait a minute, no torture can make me

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confess what I don't know. Now things have come to such a head, I won't keep anything from you. Yesterday, a little past noon, I met that couple. Just then a puff of wind blew and raised her hanging scarf, so that I caught a glimpse of her face.

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Instantly, it was again covered from my view, that may have been one reason. She looked like a bodhisattva. At that moment, I made up my mind to capture her even if I had to kill her man. Why? To me, killing isn't a matter of such great, great

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consequence as you might think. When a woman is captured, her man has to be killed anyway. In killing, I use the sword I wear at my side. Am I the only one who kills people? You, Your Honor, you don't use your swords, you kill people with

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your power, with your money, sometimes you kill them on the pretext of working for their own good. It's true, they don't bleed, they are in the best of health, but all the same, you've killed them. It's odd to say who was a greater sinner, huh? You

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or me? But it would be good if I could capture a woman without killing a man. So I made up my mind to capture her and do the best not to kill him but it's out of the question on the Yamashina Stage Road. So I managed to lure the couple into

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the mountains. Oh, it was quite easy. I became their traveling companion and I told them there was an old mound in the mountain over there, and that I had dug it open and found many mirrors and swords. I went on to tell them I'd buried the things in a

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grove behind the mountain, that I'd like to sell them at a low price to anyone who would care to have them. Then... well, you see, isn't greed terrible? He was beginning to be moved by my talk before he knew it. In less than half an hour they were

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driving their horse toward the mountain with me. When he came in front of the grove, I told them that the treasures were buried in it and I asked them to come and see. The man had no objection, he was blinded by greed. The woman said she would

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wait on horseback, it was natural for her to say so at the sight of a thick grove. To tell you the truth, my plan were just as I wished, so I went into the grove with him, leaving her behind alone. The grove is only bamboo for some distance, about

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fifty yards ahead there's a rather open clump of cedars. It was a convenient spot for my purpose. Pushing my way through the grove, I told him a plausible lie that the treasures were buried under the cedars. When I told him this, he pushed

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his laborious way toward the slender cedar visible through the grove. After a while, the bamboo thinned out and we came to where a number of cedars grew in a row. As soon as we got there, I seized him from behind. Because he was a trained

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sword-bearing warrior, he was quite strong, but he was taken by surprise, so there was no help for him. I soon tied him up to the root of a cedar tree. Where did I get the rope, Your Honor? Well, thank heaven, being a robber, I had a rope with me

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since I might have to scale a wall at any moment, right? Of course, it was easy to stop him from calling out by gagging his mouth with fallen bamboo leaves. When I disposed of him, I went to his woman and asked her to come and see him because he

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seemed to have been suddenly taken sick. Needless to say that this plan also worked well. The woman, her sedge hat off, came into the depths of the grove, where I led her by the hand. The instant she caught sight of her husband, she drew a small sword.

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I've never seen a woman of such a violent temper. If I'd been off my guard, I'd have got a thrust in my side. I dodged but she kept on slashing at me. She might have wounded me deeply or killed me, but I'm Tajomaru, I managed to strike down her small

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sword without drawing my own. The most spirited woman is defenseless without a weapon, at least I could satisfy my desire of her without taking her husband's life. Yes, without taking his life. I had no wish to kill him. Afterwards, I was

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about to run away from the grove, leaving the woman behind in tears when she frantically clung to my arm, in broken fragments of words she asked that either her husband or I die. She said it was more trying than death to have her shame

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known to two men. She gasped out that she wanted to be the wife of which ever survived. Then, a furious desire to kill him seized me. Telling you in this way, no doubt I see more crueler man than you, but that's because you didn't see her face,

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especially her burning eyes at that moment. As I saw her eye to eye, I wanted to make her my wife, even if I were to be struck by lightning. I wanted to make her my wife, this single desire filled my mind. This was not only lust, as you might

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think. At that time, if I'd had no other desire than lust, I'd surely not have minded knocking her down and running away, then I wouldn't have stained my sword with his blood. But the moment I gazed at her face in the dark grove, I decided not to leave

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there without killing her man. But I didn't like to resort to unfair means to kill him. I untied him and told him to cross swords with me. Yes, the rope you found at the root of the cedar is the rope I dropped at the time. Furious with anger, he

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drew his thick sword, and quick as thought, he sprang at me ferociously without speaking a word. Well, I needn't tell you how our fight turned out. The twenty-third stroke... please remember this: I'm impressed with this fact still, nobody

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under the sun has ever clashed swords with me more than twenty strokes. When he fell, I turned toward her, lowering my bloodstained sword, but to my greatest astonishment, she was gone. I wondered to where she had run away. I looked for her

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in the clump of cedars. I listened but heard only a groaning sound from the throat of the dying man. As soon as we started to cross swords, she may have run away through the grove to call for help. I thought of that, I decided it was a matter

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of life and death to me, so robbing him of his sword and bow and arrows, I ran out to the mountain road. There I found her horse still grazing quietly. It would be a mere waste of words to tell you the later details, but before I entered town, I had

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already parted with the sword. That's all my confession. I know that my head will be hung in chains anyway, so you can put me down for the maximum penalty. THE CONFESSION OF A WOMAN WHO HAS COME TO THE KIYOMIZU TEMPLE

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That man in the blue silk kimono, after forcing me to yield to him, laughed mockingly as he looked at my bound husband. How horrified my husband must have been, but no matter how hard he struggled in agony, the rope cut into him all

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the more tightly. In spite of myself, I ran stumbling toward his side, or rather, I tried to run toward him, but the man instantly knocked me down. Just at that moment, I saw an indescribable light in my husband's eyes, something beyond

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expression... his eyes make me shudder even now when I think of them. That instantaneous look of my husband who couldn't speak a word, told me all his heart. The flash in his eyes was neither anger nor sorrow... only a cold light, a look of loathing. More

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struck by the look in his eyes than by the blow of the thief, I called out in spite of myself, and fell unconscious. In the course of time, I came to and found that the man in the blue silk was gone. I saw only my husband's still bound to the

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root of the cedar tree. I raised myself from the bamboo-blades with difficulty and looked into his face, but the expression in his eyes was just the same as before. Beneath the cold contempt in his eyes, there was hatred. Shame, grief, and

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anger... I don't know how to express my heart at that time. Reeling to my feet, I went up to my husband, "Takejiro," I said to him, "since things have come to this pass, I cannot live with you. I'm determined to die... but you must die too. You saw my

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shame, I can't leave you alive as you are." This was all I could say. Still, he went on gazing at me with loathing and contempt. My heart breaking, I looked for his sword, it must have been taken by the robber, neither his sword nor his bow

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and arrows were be seen in the grove. But fortunately, my small sword was lying at my feet. Raising it overhead, once more, I said, "Now give me your life. I'll follow you immediately." When he heard these words, he moved his lips with difficulty.

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Since his mouth was stuffed with leaves, of course his voice could not be heard at all. But at a glance, I understood his words, despising me, his look said only, "Kill me." Neither conscious nor unconscious, I stabbed the small sword through

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the lilac-colored kimono into his breast. Again at this time I must have fainted. By the time I managed to look up, he had already breathed his last, still in bonds. A streak of sinking sunlight streamed through the clump of cedar trees and bamboos

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and shone on his pale face. Gulping down my sobs, I untied the rope from his dead body. And... and what has become of me since, I have no more strength to tell you. Anyway, I hadn't the strength to die. I stabbed my own throat with a small

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sword, I threw myself into a pond at the foot of the mountain, and I tried to kill myself in many ways. Unable to end my life, I am still living in dishonor. Worthless as I am, I must have been forsaken even by the most merciful Kwannon. I

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killed my own husband. I was violated by the robber, whatever can I do? Whatever can I... I... I... THE STORY OF THE MURDERED MAN AS TOLD TO THE LORD HIGH POLICE COMMISSIONER THROUGH A MEDIUM

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After violating my wife, the robber, sitting there, began to speak comforting words to her. Of course, I couldn't speak, my whole body was tied fast to the root of a cedar tree. But meanwhile I winked at her many times, as much as to say, "Don't

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believe him." I wanted to convey some such meaning to her, but my wife, sitting dejectedly on the bamboo leaves, was looking hard at her lap. To all appearances, she was listening to his words. I was agonized by jealousy. In the meantime, the robber went on

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with his clever talk from one subject to another. The robber finally made his bold brazen proposal: "Once your virtue is stained," he said, "you won't get along well with your husband, so won't you be my wife instead? It's my love for you

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that made me be violent towards you." While the criminal talked, my wife raised her face as if in a trance. She had never looked so beautiful as at that moment,. What did my beautiful wife say in answer to him while I was sitting bound there? I am lost

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in space but I have never thought of her answer without burning with anger and jealousy. Truly, she said, "...Then take me away with you wherever you go." This is not the whole of her sin, if that were all, I would not be tormented so much

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here in the dark. When she was going out of the grove, as if in a dream, her hand in the robbers, she suddenly turned pale and pointed at me, tied to the root of the tree and said, "Kill him. I cannot marry you as long as he lives." "Kill him!"

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she cried many times as if she'd gone crazy. Even though these words threatened to blow me headlong into the bottomless abyss of darkness, has such a hateful thing come out of a human mouth ever before? Have such cursed words ever struck a

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human ear even once? Even once such a... with these words, the robber himself turned pale. "Kill him!" she cried, "kill him!" clinging to the robber's arms. I looked hard at her. He answered, neither yes or no... and he looked hard at her, but

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hardly had I thought about his answer before she had been knocked to the- down into the bamboo leaves by him. Quietly folding his arms, the robber looked at me and said, "What will you have me do with her? Kill her? Save her? All you have

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to do is nod and I'll kill her." For these words alone, I would like to pardon the robber's crime. While I hesitated, she shrieked and ran into the depths of the grove, the robber instantly snatched her but he failed even to grasp her sleeve.

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After she ran away, he took up my sword and my bow and arrows. With a single stroke, he cut one of my bonds. I remember him something like, "My fate is next," then he disappeared from the grove. All was silent after that, no, I heard someone

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crying. Untying the rest of my bonds, I listened carefully and I noticed that it was my own crying. I raised my exhausted body from the root of the tree. In front of me was shining, the small sword which my wife had dropped. I took it up and

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stabbed it into my chest. A bloody lump rose to my throat, but I didn't feel any pain. When my breast grew cold, everything was as silent as the dead in their graves. What a profound silence. Not a single bird-note was heard in the sky over this

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grave in the hollow of the mountains. Only a lonely light lingered on the cedars. By and by, the light gradually grew fainter till the cedars and the bamboo were lost to view. Lying there, I was enveloped in deep silence. Then someone crept up

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to me. I tried to see who it was, but darkness had already been gathering around me. Someone... that someone drew the small sword softly out of my chest in its invisible hand. At the same time, once more, blood flowed into my mouth, and once

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and for all I sank into the darkness of space. And who is that mysterious person? If you listen closely, or look up the story, Ryunosuke Akutagawa, his last name is spelled, A-K-U-T-A-G-A-W-A, has set many things in motion.

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Everyone is telling a lie to make him or herself look good. Even the first person who talked to us, the poor woodcutter who didn't see a knife anywhere. I leave you to find the answer to this mystery, which really is the mystery of the human animal

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and the way he wants to look to others. I have been reading this wonderful story which is made into the great film by Akira Kurosawa called "Rashomon" to get you ready for the 13th Pacific Rim Film Festival, which

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will be from November 1st, that is this Friday, to the Tuesday after this Tuesday, November 5th at the grand auditorium at the Del Mar Theater on Pacific Avenue in downtown Santa Cruz. This is the 13th annual show. It is still going to be presented

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to you admission free. So first come first serve, we start at seven o'clock on Friday November 1st. We will have eight different films, we will have award-winning documentaries, but mostly fiction films. The directors of the documentaries

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will be here. In the middle of this festival on Sunday, we will have the word- the American mainland premiere of "Sons of Hawaii" where the great Eddie Kamae and the Sons of Hawaii will entertain you. That will be the only night there will be

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a charge, it will be twelv dollars a ticket to help us pa our bills to keep bringing yo this wonderful event free o charge. So do come to th Pacific Rim Film Festival. Thi is Mort Marcus telling you tha Billie Harris will be back nex

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week and thanking you so much t listen in to "From the Bookshe f," and we now take it away for our next s