The Day He Himsef Shall Wipe My Tears Away - Opening

Deep one night he was trimming his nose that would never walk again into sunlight atop living legs, busily feeling every hair with a Rotex rotary nostril clipper as if to make his nostrils as bare as a monkey's, when suddenly a man, perhaps escaped from the mental ward in the same hospital or perhaps a lunatic who happened to be passing, with a body abnormally small and meagre for a man save only for a face as round as a Dharma's and covered in hair, sat down on the edge of his bed and shouted, foaming,

-- What in God's name are you? What? WHAT? WHAT?

Copyright 1977 by John Nathan

All Rights Reserved

No part of this book may be reproduced, for anay reason, by any means,
including any method of photographic reproduction, without the permission
of the publisher.

"Happy Days Are Here Again" 1929 WARNER BROS. INC.
Copyright Renewed
All Rights Reserved
Used by Permission

First Edition 1977
First Printing 1977
Grove Press

First Evergreen Edition 1977
Designed by Steven A. Baron

Manufactured in the United States of America

Distributed by Random House, Inc., New York

GROVE PRESS, INC., 196 West Houston Street, New York, N.Y. 10014

FOUR SHORT NOVELS by
Kenzaburo Ōe

Translated and Introduction by
John Nathan

Grove Press, Inc.,
New York