90 Quotes by Yasunari Kawabata

In the moonlight the fine geishalike skin took on the luster of a seashell.

I like the idea of saying thank you on behalf of the weather.

Even when natural weather is good, human weather is bad.

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.

– Понимаете, Кикудзисан, человек не может быть благоразумным и мудрым, если в нем слишком сильно мужское или женское начало.– Да? Значит, мудрость среднего пола?– Иронизируете? Ну, ну… Однако, когда превращаешься в существо среднего пола, начинаешь насквозь видеть и мужчин и женщин.

Her kimono stood out from her neck,and her back and shoulders were like a white fan spread under it. There was something sad about the full flesh under that white powder. It suggested a woolen cloth,and again it suggested the pelt of some animal.

The woman was silent, her eyes on the floor. Shimamura had come to a point where he knew he was only parading his masculine shamelessness, and yet it seemed likely enough that the woman was familiar with the failing and need not be shocked by it. He looked at her. Perhaps it was the rich lashes of the downcast eyes that made her face seem warm and sensuous. She shook her head very slightly, and again a faint blush spread over her face.

He could not call up the faces of his own mother and father, who had died three or four years before. He would look at a picture, and there they would be. Perhaps people were progressively harder to paint in the mind as they were near one, loved by one. Perhaps clear memories came easily in proportion as they were ugly.

The true joy of a moonlit night is something we no longer understand. Only the men of old, when there were no lights, could understand the true joy of a moonlit night.