A Greeting to the Birds Yoshitomo Nara Pia/2006/Japanese/26cm The subject is Jacques Prévert, France's greatest poet of the 20th century. Director Takahata, who has long admired Prévert, personally translated his poems—still read worldwide in the 21st century—while artist Yoshitomo Nara, who similarly resonated with the work, contributed newly drawn illustrations and pieces first published in book form. The title “Salutations to the Birds” comes from a poem in Prévert's collection “Words.” For Prévert, birds soaring freely across the vast sky were a splendid symbol, showing him a way of life. Takahata's translation, which cries out for freedom, and Nara's unrestrained illustrations will surely awaken the free and innocent heart—the boyish heart—that adults living in the modern world have begun to forget.