Yuki Fuwa ~ So Eagerly Awaiting

Translated by Toshiya Kamei

Oh, how cursed am I in love?” My neck stretch­es like a rub­ber band. My head snakes through moon­lit autumn air toward your win­dow. Beyond the screen door, you lie asleep beside your wife. Her serene coun­te­nance makes my blood boil. “That should be me. She’s tak­ing my place,” I whis­per as the inces­sant hum of crick­ets drowns out my words. I smoth­er my own breath­ing and strain my ears to catch yours. “I’m here, dar­ling. Look at me!” “I can see you,” the moon over­head answers. But by the time the words reach Earth, day­break arrives as anoth­er curse.

~

Yuki Fuwa is a Japanese writer from Osaka. In 2020, she was named a final­ist for the first Reiwa Novel Prize. In the same year, her short sto­ry was a final­ist in the first Kaguya SF Contest.

Toshiya Kamei holds an MFA in Literary Translation from the University of Arkansas. His trans­la­tions have appeared in such venues as ClarkesworldThe Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, and Strange Horizons.