Benjamin

Walter Benjamin was taking hold of me at my parents’ house. But then I was not reading Benjamin. My elderly parents were unable to economically communicate with me. I would read and examine Benjamin, even though I was supposed to start work. Since I don’t understand German I read both the Japanese and English translations. The two translations differed in the length of every sentence and there was no difference in the length of the thoughts. Benjamin gave me the phrase “reine Sprache,” which is “pure language” in the English translation. I don’t know how much I understood this concept, but it made me happy that Benjamin is, on my behalf, critical of “communication” and says that the salvation of pure language is the translator’s task. Benjamin read me. I followed up on an old conversation I had with my parents. The number of sentences exchanged. The length of the sentences exchanged. I picked up the crystallized words at the bottom. Benjamin read us and we were being read by Benjamin.