August 16, 2010
NHK Hi-Vision, beginning at nine last night, was truly wonderful.
It vividly proved that the beauty of the images and the documentary production NHK has built up are the real thing.
For me, it was an unexpected feast on a Sunday night…
In the first program was “Noriko-san,” the young, beautiful, strong woman who was the only Japanese participant…
You said that from now on you would like to keep traveling the world while doing translation and other work. If you feel reasonably confident that you can translate my writing into English, would you please do so?
I would be glad if the translation fee I pay could help you travel the world.
As I watched the South American continent through which you are traveling…
I was also thinking of someone I greatly admire, Henri Michaux, one of the finest poets France has produced…
For he, too, traveled through the South American continent, just as you have.
The second program, which continued past midnight, was also like an exquisite film…
Irresistible for a wine lover…
I was relieved that I watched this program now, rather than back in the days when I was drinking constantly as one of Osaka’s heaviest drinkers (laughs).
There was only one occasion when I kept watching a Japanese TV drama… Long ago, it was a drama about a wine sommelier starring Miho Kanno…
It had nothing about wine that I had hoped for…
That is what Japanese commercial television is like…
All that came of it was that I grew fond of the actress Miho Kanno…
It did me no good at all…
It only gave me one more useless daydream (laughs).
The second program, on the other hand, taught me almost everything about wine.
This year’s competition was held in Chile…
It introduced Chilean wine with the poetry of Pablo Neruda—one of the finest poets South America has produced, who also left an immense mark on European philosophy and poetry—as its guide…
NHK, you are wonderful.
Since true life has no end, and neither do true images, please go on making programs of the highest caliber in the world without end…
Programs that can stand alongside those of the BBC and France’s national broadcaster.
When I someday finish writing the one book that is my mission, I also hope you will say farewell to the old god through images.
In 170 years’ time, throughout Japan and in Brazil…
With the beauty of your images and the wonderful sound technology you have built up…
Let “Cavalleria Rusticana,” perhaps the most fitting piece for this, resound across the skies of both countries, and bring down to earth those four million people who continued to support me and you.
The world will…
As it did when Pablo Casals, the greatest cellist of the 20th century, played “Song of the Birds” at the first United Nations General Assembly after the Second World War…
People throughout the world will simply weep and listen to the sounds you send forth.