Japanese

World Sketches from Our Friends

Interval: The Star Gazer

Calypso

The dark sky and the forest darker than sky.  The asphalt road lies in the
valley between densely leafed branches.  No street lamps and no lighted
windows of the houses.
"Here is a good enough spot, though some trees are slightly obstructing the
view."
"No problem.  Which direction of the sky are we facing now?"
"We can check it by the polestar.  Look, that is the polestar and that is
Cassiopeia."
"And?"
"That's all (wry grin).  I'm surprised to find only few names of the
constellations in my mind."

"I wonder why Cassiopeia is full of twists and turns."
"Because she sits down on the chair, I suppose.  I've seen it on the
planisphere."
"What is she doing on the chair?"
"She has something in her hand, perhaps a spool or the like.  I might be
wrong.  Apropos of those who spins threads or weaves, all I can recall is
Penelope."
"The wife of Odysseus, isn't she?"
"Yes. Everyday she weaves at her loom, waiting for Odysseus to return home.
But when the night comes, she unravels her work.  She must marry a new
husband if her cloth is completed."
"Has she got married?"
"Fortunately, no.  Odysseus has returned on ahead, after 20 years of
absence.  What a long absence!"
"What a long journey he's made!"

"I always look up into the night sky during the trip, but I've never fallen
into a sleep while gazing the stars.  I want to try it once."
"I want to see the Southern Cross.  We can't see it unless we go to
Australia, can we?"
"In Okinawa, we can see a part of it and perhaps the dummy Southern Cross,
too."
"I have no business with the dummy!  I want to see the whole of real
Southern Cross, and if possible, the Milky Way."
"You can see the Milky Way everywhere."
"Holy moly!  Why don't I remember seeing it?"
"Don't you see it really?"
"I've seen it at grandma's house when I was a child, but it is the last..."
"Well, then, let's see the Milky Way in our next trip.  If we look for it,
we can certainly find it."
The car engine roars in the distance.  The comet-like light approaches and
suddenly expands, then just before the explosion, it vanishes.  The
gasoline smells faintly in the dark.

p.s.:
There are the moments not enough to capture in the photograph, not enough
to write in the diary, but found only in the trips.  This is the sketch of
such a interval of the trip.

From the Author (from_calypso@hotmail.com)

Hi, I'm Calypso. My home is a small island in Aegean Sea. In the night, listening to the sound of waves, I fall into a deep sleep and dream. In most of my dreams, I'm working as a UNIX engineer, but sometimes I'm on a trip. A flower which I've never seen before, a town which softens my mind every time. I sketch those trip scenes and deliver them to this site. I would be happy if my sketches could delight someone.

Related Websites
Web Planetarium (Japanese/English)
http://star.gs/indexe1.htm

Penelope & the Suitors(John William Waterhouse)
http://sunsite.icm.edu.pl/cjackson/waterhou/p-waterh14.htm