Beauty And Sadness Quotes
"To look at that one revolving chair, wheeling before him in the empty car, made him feel lonely."
"The deep booming note of a huge Buddhist temple bell resounded at leisurely intervals, and the lingering reverberations held an awareness of the old Japan and of the flow of time."
"As the bells rang he would look back at the departing year. He always found it a moving experience."
"Sometimes he was racked by sorrow and regret."
"For a long time he had been tempted by the thought of being in Kyoto one New Year’s Eve to hear the living sound of those old temple bells."
"It was as if he saw his own loneliness silently turning round and round within his heart."
"Oki found the Kyoto express convenient, since it left Tokyo and Yokohama early in the afternoon, arriving at Kyoto in the evening."
"That revolving chair in the observation car, turning by itself, came before him."
"All of Mt. Arashi was as still as that pool of water."
"The cold of the snow and its warm color made a kind of music."
"The plum tree bore red and white blossoms. Not that it had been grafted—red and white blossoms were interspersed on a single branch."
"Whether you thought of the picture as cold or warm, the plum blossom throbbed with the youthful emotions of the painter."
"The background might be an image of Keiko’s own feeling."
"It had the same tonality as the variations of red and white in the blossom’s petals."
"The whole surface was filled with the soft undulations of overlapping rows of tea bushes."
"She began going there to sketch. Even Keiko seemed not to notice how she felt."
"The stone garden lingered like a shadow in the depths of her eyes."
"No, but I’d like to come here and do nothing but look at it for days and days."
"I remember an essay by a haiku poet, something about looking at the sea day after day, and then moving to Kyoto and understanding what a stone garden really means."
"Would you like your pictures to last even longer? I could never hope for that."
"Maybe it’s best if everything changes and disappears!"
"I suppose even a woman’s hatred is a kind of love."
"Deep in your heart you’re still in love with him. And he keeps you hidden deep in his own heart too."
"I have no real talent, and I don’t want to leave anything to posterity."
"I’d be delighted if Mrs. Oki tore up my tea-field painting. I’d know she felt overwhelmed by emotion."
"You often paint pictures of your baby, don’t you? How long do you expect to go on doing that?"
"Waiting for Mr. Oki is like waiting for the past—time and the river won’t flow backward."
"Time flows in the same way for all human beings; every human being flows through time in a different way."
"The powerful drug she took to kill herself was soon completely purged from her body; Oki and his baby were gone from her too, and the scars they left might have been expected to fade. Yet her love for Oki remained undiminished."
"Cosmic time is the same for everyone, but human time differs with each person."
"She seemed to cling to his memory as if she could not live without it."
"Even if two people were lovers, their streams of time would never be the same."
"She seemed to be getting deaf—in her early twenties!"
"I hate to think I’ve been living on money from the sacrifice of a girl’s whole life."
"The woman’s willingness to yield herself seems to emanate from her whole body."
"Memories of Otoko came to him one after another. After a while he broke the silence: 'Now I notice your scent.'"
"The best medicine for a woman is getting married."
"That's because of you! Missing a night or two of sleep doesn't matter."
"She seemed withdrawn. Oki noticed and relaxed his grip, but then she began undulating as if that excited her all the more."
"Loneliness seemed to come and go as it pleased."
"She seemed to be clinging a little closer to him, so close he could feel the soft warmth of her body."
"Isn't the end of one thing the beginning of another?"
"What had she lived for, why was she still alive?"
"It is odd, being here with you.… It makes me wonder where I am."
"People call it the most famous tree in the Western Hills."
"I've always been fond of this old tree, but it's years since I looked at it like this."
"I can do it. You ought to know those steps won't bother me. I don't care how far we climb!"
"Beautiful, aren't they? These are the 'Tombs of the Three Emperors'—they're masterpieces of stonework."
"It's true there comes a time when a tombstone loses its meaning."
"I'll always remember being in your arms in front of an old tomb on a morning like this. It seems strange for a tomb to create a memory."
"But they're built for memories, aren't they?"
"So early? The way the sunlight filters down, it looks like noon."
"How can a man be so cruel to a girl he's holding in his arms, asking her if she seduced his father?"
"You mustn't touch the right one. I don't like it."