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If Only the Dream Trees Could Touch

夢の樹が接げたなら

• by Morioka Hiroyuki
• published by Hayakawa JA

Short story collection.
The title story is Morioka's debut work, and before I became a famous and successful translator, I translated this for my portfolio. Mainly to see if I would crumple in the face of research.

No, you can't see it.

Set in a future where languages can be downloaded into the mind, and customized languages have become all the rage -- each company has their own language, many writers and musicians, couples or even families have their own private language.
One language designer discovers a new kind of language -- a language so fundamentally different that learning the language completely destroys your ability to speak any conventional languages. It is, for want of a better word, a right brain language. Communication consists of single words relating the entirety of that person's present experience.

None of the other stories in here even come close to this one, which is easily the best thing he's ever written. Some of them misfire, and a few of them are really pretty good, but it's the title story you're buying the book for.