Meanwhile : What will remain 100 years from now?

About this episode

The episode reflects on the impermanence of life and questions the happiness of future generations through the lens of a poem by Shuntaro Tanikawa.

Yang Sung-hee The author is a cultural columnist. "People of 100 years from now, are you still eating tuna sashimi rolls? Are you still drinking local craft beer? Do you still read scraps of poetry? I regret that I will not live for 100 more years and so cannot hear your answer. Are you happy now?" Those lines — rendered from the original Japanese text — are from a short poem, the title of which translates to "A Message to the World 100 Years from Now," by Japanese poet Shuntaro Tanikawa. While reading the poem, I remembered a moment from my high school years. Looking out a bus window, I saw a young mother carrying a baby at a bus stop. Suddenly, I was struck by the thought that 100 years in the future, neither I nor the mother, the child or anyone standing there would still exist. The realization landed like a blow. It may have been my first encounter with the feeling of impermanence. An acquaintance often repeated the phrase "dust after 100 years." Since everyone becomes dust after a century, he would say, there is little reason to fight or struggle so desperately. The Bible offers a similar reminder: "For dust thou art, and into dust shalt thou return." Tanikawa, widely…

People in this episode

Host: Yang Sung-hee

Topics covered

• existentialism
• impermanence
• future happiness
• cultural reflection
• poetry

Keywords

• tuna sashimi rolls
• local craft beer
• poetry
• existential reflection
• future generations

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