Grasses [Soso]

“I kinda feel like pulling up some grass,” Sei Shonagon said, and immediately began munching on the weeds growing by the roadside.
“Doing this makes the sorrow seep into all my internal organs...” Nagon said, uttering complete nonsense as she munched on grass with soil still clinging to its roots. After finishing the grass, Nagon stuck her tongue out diagonally toward the lower right and looked pleased with herself. Then she suddenly shouted, “Now I'm in the mood for some Tsurezuregusa!”

Striding along the riverbank, Nagon plucked weeds growing by the path, muttering, “Not this one...” She kept searching until her twelve-layered court robes were stained with mud and in tatters. Watching her, I felt my heart tighten. “That's enough, Nagon. Besides, there's asbestos stuck to the mud, and it's bad for you,” I said, placing a hand on her shoulder. Nagon suddenly quieted down, smiled with her eyes lowered, and replied, “It's okay. I kinda feel like it's safe.”

Nagon sat on the riverbank and began throwing small stones with a spin, skipping them across the water. They bounced a few times before going plop and sinking. Watching them, she sighed. “When I throw stones like this, I kinda feel like if I threw myself into the river while spinning round and round, I could bounce a few times too.” Then Nagon stood up and took a few steps back. “All right,” she muttered, lifting the hem of her robe with both hands. I didn't try to stop her anymore. After a running start, Nagon hurled herself into the river while spinning. The moment her body touched the water, there was a sharp little pi! sound, and the river lifted her into the air, robe and all. Leaving splashes and ripples behind her, Nagon bounced across the river, spinning round and round. “She'll sink this time. She'll sink this time,” I thought with every bounce. But at last she reached the opposite bank, looking utterly exhausted, as though wrapped up in her robe. “Are you all right, Nagon?!” I called out. Nagon (though, strictly speaking, she was Shonagon, not Nagon) tried to stand up, tipped over sideways, and eventually lay down.

I somehow felt I could hear Sei Shonagon's voice saying, with a hand over her mouth, “I shouldn't have eaten that grass...”

First published in: Karada no Koto (free paper, June 4, 2012)

A note for readers

The title Soso (草々) plays on two meanings: it is a conventional closing used in Japanese letters, and its repeated character 草 means “grass.” The title thus connects the conventions of writing with the actual grass that dominates the story.

Tsurezuregusa, commonly translated as Essays in Idleness, is a classic Japanese collection of essays. The joke turns its final character, 草, meaning “grass,” into something Sei Shonagon can literally crave and eat. Sei Shonagon herself was a Heian-period court writer best known for The Pillow Book.