Quotes from Yasunari Kawabata

Cum o fi oare sentimentul de singur?tate la animale?

As old age approached, Eguchi would, on nights when he had difficulty sleeping, sometimes remember the woman's words, and count up numbers of women on his fingers; but he did not stop at anything so simple as picturing those he would not mind kissing. He would travel back over memories of women with whom he had had affairs. An old love had come back tonight because the sleeping beauty had given him the illusion that he smelled milk.

?i sfinÈ›ii sau înÈ›elepÈ›ii de odinioar?, È™i cercet?torii de azi ai fenomenelor metapsihice, toÈ›i cei care au meditat asupra sufletului È™i-au manifestat în general respectul pentru cel al fiinÈ›ei umane È™i au desconsiderat celelalte animale È™i plantele. De mii de ani înaint?m orbeÈ™te doar în direcÈ›ia c?ut?rii diferenÈ›elor de tot felul dintre om È™i lumea natural?.

Ciudate mai sunt lacrimile oamenilor!

The course of one's life is a difficult thing. -from Diary of My Sixteenth Year

Las noches ofrecen sapos, perros negro y cadáveres de ahogados.

Animalele nu sunt lipsite de sentimente… Dac? n-aÈ™ avea lâng? mine ceva viu, care s? se miÈ™te, n-aÈ™ putea suporta singur?tatea.

Why had God created man's face so that he might not see it himself? 'Suppose you could see your own face, would you lose your mind? Would you become incapable of acting?' Most probably man had evolved in such a way that he could not see his own face. Maybe dragonflies and praying mantises could see their own faces.

Tu eÈ™ti singurul care nu-È›i vezi propria fa??. ÎÈ›i atingi zilnic figura convins fiind c? imaginea reflectat? ar fi cea pe care o vezi direct. Ky?ko r?mase un timp pe gânduri, întrebându-se ce sens o avea oare faptul c? Dumnezeu i-a f?cut pe oameni astfel încât s? nu-È™i poat? vedea chipul.

Su angustia no era común a todas las mujeres en el acto de la entrega. Y con ella ocurrió solamente en aquella única vez. El hilo de plata estaba cortado, la taza de oro destruida.

Don't you worry about other people's problems.

La luce della cabina si spense. A bordo, l'odore di pesce e salsedine si fece più intenso. Nel buio, scaldato dal tepore del corpo del ragazzo, diedi libero sfogo alle lacrime. La mia mente era ormai acqua limpida che scivolava via goccia a goccia, mentre a me restava solo il dolce piacere di ciò che finisce e non lascia più nulla.

She was not a living doll, for there could be no living doll; but, so as not to shame an old man no longer a man, she had been made into a living toy. No, not a toy: for the old men, she could be life itself. Such life was, perhaps, life to be touched with confidence.

Si Fusako y las niñas hubiesen sido abandonadas, no les habría quedado otra salida que el suicidio. Pero los hombres, aunque se encuentren en una situación muy difícil, siempre tendrán una mujer que quiera morir con ellos.

And then you may think of it as promiscuous, but the girl herself is asleep, and doesn't even know who she has slept with. The girl the other time and the girl tonight will never know a thing about you, and to speak of promiscuousness is a little…

It would be odd to explain, now that he had come to the house, that for an old man who was no longer a man, to keep company with a girl who had been put to sleep was "not a human relationship.

Pasaban los años,y la única persona que no cambiaba era la joven de su libro

Se preguntó si era su juventud y su inocencia lo que habían dado tanta intensidad a ese amor. Quizás eso explicara su pasión ciega e insaciable. Cuando en un espasmo mordía el hombro de Oki, ni siguiera advertía la sangre que manaba de la herida.

Esperar a Oki es lo mismo que esperar el pasado… El tiempo y los ríos no corren para atrás.

Con todo, no podía reprimir los vívidos recuerdos de aquella pasión, su cuerpo se ponía tenso y comenzaba a temblar. Por fin la tensión se aflojaba y una deliciosa sensación de plenitud recorría sus miembros. Su amor del pasado había vuelto a la vida.

Con el correr del tiempo, el recuerdo de aquel abrazo se fue purificando dentro de Otoko; fue dejando de ser algo físico para convertirse en algo espiritual. Ahora ella ya no era pura y sin duda Oki tampoco lo era. Y sin embargo, su antiguo abrazo, tal como lo veía ahora, parecía puro. Aquel recuerdo —en el que ella intervenía y no intervenía, que parecía real e irreal— era una visión sagrada, una visión sublimada del abrazo de antaño.

Por qué florecía aquel loto en medio de una hoguera? ¿Por qué no se marchitaba?

Thoughts almost fatherly came to him as he asked himself what vicissitudes this witchlike girl faced through the years ahead. In them was evidence that Eguchi too was old. There could be no doubt that the girl was here for money. Nor was there any doubt that, for the old men who paid out the money, sleeping beside such a girl was a happiness not of this world. Because the girl would not awaken, the aged guests need not feel the shame of their years.

A no ser por la mirada melancólica de sus ojos, cuando pensaba en Oki, nadie habría advertido su tristeza. Y hasta esa ocasional sombra sólo contribuía a acentuar su belleza.