“This was the first good look we had had of each other’s angry faces, but smiling was an impossibility. We couldn’t see our own faces, but looking at each other gave us an idea. My sister’s face was puffed up like a loaf of bread, and her eyes, normally large, black and uncannily clear, hadContinue reading “RKS Japanese Literature: Hiroshima Aftermath: Face Puffed up Like a Loaf of Bread (Yoko Ōta)”
Tag Archives: RKS Japanese Literature
RKS Japanese Literature: Hiroshima Aftermath: Crushed by Sheer Force (Yoko Ōta)
“We could not conceive of the day’s events as being related in any way to the war. We were being crushed by a sheer force-an intense and one-sided force-that had nothing to do with the war. Neither did we as fellow Japanese encourage one another or console one another. We behaved submissively and said nothing.Continue reading “RKS Japanese Literature: Hiroshima Aftermath: Crushed by Sheer Force (Yoko Ōta)”
RKS Japanese Literature: The Idiocy of Macaroons (Mieko Kawakami)
“So the day after next, I bought a pile of colourful macaroons at the macaroon shop in the arcade….I placed the box of macaroons and cherries on the coffee table with a polite bow. Thanking me with a smile, she took the two boxes to the kitchen and soon returned with some coffee and theContinue reading “RKS Japanese Literature: The Idiocy of Macaroons (Mieko Kawakami)”
RKS Japanese Literature: That 2 p.m. Tokyo Feeling (Mieko Kawakami)
“It was two o’clock in the afternoon-that most vacant time of the day when the laundry is done and the vacuum put away but it’s still too early to go food shopping. The time when you feel most keenly that you are useless and the world is silently laughing at you from afar. No matterContinue reading “RKS Japanese Literature: That 2 p.m. Tokyo Feeling (Mieko Kawakami)”
RKS Japanese Literature: The 1963/1982 Girl from Ipanema (Haruki Murakami)
Tall and tan and lovely The girl from Ipanema goes walking When she walks, it’s like a samba That swings so cool and sways so gently, How can I tell her I love her? Yes, I would give my heart gladly. But each day when she walks to the sea, Shed looks straight ahead, notContinue reading “RKS Japanese Literature: The 1963/1982 Girl from Ipanema (Haruki Murakami)”
RKS Japanese Literature: The Monk with a Lute (Doppo Kunikida )
“But I watched the monk and listened to his playing. The narrow yet busy street with its ramshackle dwellings had little in common with the monk and the lute, but somewhere, I felt there was a deep understanding between them. The lute’s sobbing tones drifted between the rows of houses on either side, mingling withContinue reading “RKS Japanese Literature: The Monk with a Lute (Doppo Kunikida )”
RKS Japanese Literature: Unforgettable People (Kunikida Doppo)
“We can’t simply call parents and children or friends or teachers and others to whom we are obligated “unforgettable people”. These are people whom we dare not forget. But there are others-complete strangers-to whom we are bound by neither love nor duty. Forgetting them would imply neither neglect of duty nor want of compassion. YetContinue reading “RKS Japanese Literature: Unforgettable People (Kunikida Doppo)”
RKS Japanese Literature: Used Bathwater from the Prison (Nagai Kafū)
“And on sultry summer evenings, peering through sparse reed blinds, I have had a clear view of the secrets of these people’s households. How well I recall passing by here on afternoons where the prisoner’s used bathwater would gush down the drainage ditches below the tenement’s windows, raising clouds of foul-smelling steam. It must beContinue reading “RKS Japanese Literature: Used Bathwater from the Prison (Nagai Kafū)”
RKS Japanese Literature: The Pure Art of Conversation Lost on People Like This (Nagai Kafū)
“Now the argument centres on him until the evening dishes line up beneath the dusky lamp-boiled beans, pickled vegetables, a stew of fish bones and scallions, and a rice tub smeared with dirty fingerprints. Gathered around their flimsy table, the family talk about uncle so-and-so, who showed up wanting to know the cost of Mother’sContinue reading “RKS Japanese Literature: The Pure Art of Conversation Lost on People Like This (Nagai Kafū)”
RKS Japanese Literature: Making the Yellow Man Believe in the White Man’s Yellow Peril (Nagai Kafū)
“Here, then, is proof that cruelty to animals is an issue only to a few Christians, not a pressing problem for the whole of Japanese society. Is this a matter for grief or celebration? Witnessing these scenes only deepens my sense that the Japanese are a warlike people who are sure to defeat the RussiansContinue reading “RKS Japanese Literature: Making the Yellow Man Believe in the White Man’s Yellow Peril (Nagai Kafū)”
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