Act One
Around four in the afternoon, early winter. Sannomiya Yū and Itō Chiharu are walking through a park.
Sannomiya Yū: But don’t you feel that life, this massive column, is slowly closing in on us?
Itō Chiharu: Is that so? Do we still have a chance to hide in the basement?
Sannomiya Yū: I don’t think so. Streetlights, handrails, trees, everything has become a column. These immovable columns! Damn it, look at that, what is it?
Itō Chiharu: Is that love?
Sannomiya Yū: Love! Love has become a column too! An Ionic column adorned with a floral wreath, giving off the fragrance of wheat and clouds.
Itō Chiharu: The sun is setting. Aren’t you going home?
Sannomiya Yū: If I go home, do we just let love, the streetlights, the water pipes, the flute, and the fire extinguisher ignore this detestable neighborhood we depend on for survival? Even though it presents the same colors in my life day after day, don’t you crave something else? Look, the sun is setting again. It set yesterday too, and the day before. There’s never a day when it doesn’t set, Chiharu. If one day you see the sun fixed in the sky, that’ll be the end of the world.
Itō Chiharu: I’m actually looking forward to that day.
Sannomiya Yū: If that day really comes, maybe this neighborhood will see some change. But for now all you can do is watch the sun slide from the pale sky into the earth, from beside the chimney to between the branches, from between the branches to beneath where the fallen leaves are buried.
Itō Chiharu: Will tomorrow’s sun be the same sun as today’s?
Sannomiya Yū: Who knows. It’s so far from us.
Itō Chiharu: When its light falls generously, evenly, impartially onto your body, do you still feel that way?
Sannomiya Yū: Perhaps all it adds to me are more columns.
Itō Chiharu: Enough with the columns!
Sannomiya Yū: I don’t want to go back.
Itō Chiharu: Then stay here. Stand in the cold wind, think about your columns, and feel all of today’s chill.
Sannomiya Yū: I can feel all of your hostility.
Itō Chiharu: Goodbye. (Exit.)
Sannomiya Yū: …
Sannomiya Yū: Goodbye. (Exit.)
Act Two
The sun is fixed in the sky.