Of late a gloomy rain has been falling almost incessantly. Whatever I do depresses me.
Regardless of the cause, those in charge always seemed to be seeking power and glory for themselves.
A leader pompously voices his own views without the least hesitation. Do as I say, he proclaims. Then you, as well as your family and your village and your country and the whole world too will be secure. Gesturing grandly, he roars on about how disaster will come from ignoring him. But then, as has happened time after time, his favorite prostitute gives him the cold shoulder, and this makes him cry out desperately for the abolition of her kind.
I believed that the gloom of our daily lives could not be dispelled, no matter how much one declaimed about society and politics.
It seems that when people are in a state of euphoria, they don’t always notice the suffering of others.
I have suffered much at the hands of human society. Forgive me if I seem overly suspicious.
There was in his nature a tendency to display a taste for fairness and justice – not the “fairness and justice” that politicians are forever carrying on about, but fairness and justice in the true, original sense of the words. As a consequence, the people of Mishima regarded him as a troublemaker and kept their distance.
I also like to take my glasses off and look at people. The faces around me, all of them, seem kind and pretty and smiling. What’s more, when my glasses are off, I don’t ever think about arguing with anyone at all, nor do I feel the need to make snide remarks. All I do is just blankly stare in silence.
The five brothers and sisters, and I myself, have gradually grown more adult, more polite, more guarded – have become, in short, “members of society” – and when we do on occasion meet, it’s not the least bit fun.
I am happy now. Even if I were to hear the four walls all shriek in anguish, my feeling of happiness would still be at the saturation point. I am so happy I could sneeze.” Mr. Uehara laughed. “But it’s too late now. It’s dusk already.” “It’s morning!” That morning my brother Naoji committed suicide.
He looks happy. Away from home like this, he seems a different person.
It seems, regrettably, that not even genius can overcome the debilitating effects of a mild fever.
Drinkers tend to say inane and obnoxious things when they’re drunk, but most of them are in fact harmless, innocent souls like this.
Without mutual respect, there can be no true nuptial bond.
Perhaps, then, most lovers of drink are not what we today would call egoists but rather guardians of the sort of generous spirit that inspires all of us to toast, at times, our neighbor’s happiness. We do this because we want to drink, yes, but if our neighbor gets drunk along with us, our pleasure is double.
Ojii-san’s wen has been his only confidant, and he’s conscious of a certain loneliness without it.
That’s all right. I’ll eat it cold. No need to warm it up.” Ojii-san shrinks guiltily into himself as he sits down. He’s dying to tell his wife about all the marvelous things that happened last night, but in the stern and austere atmosphere of her presence he finds the words sticking in his throat. He eats with head bowed, feeling perfectly wretched.
Each individual has his own way of living. Can we not learn to respect one another’s chosen way? One makes every effort to live in a dignified and proper manner, without harming anyone else, yet people will carp and cavil and try to tear one down.
What do you think the path of your predecessors was, but the path of adventure?
The more I feared people the more I was liked, and the more I was liked the more I feared them.