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The Heike Story: A Modern Translation of the Classic Tale of Love and War QUOTES

The Heike Story: A Modern Translation of the Classic Tale of Love and War QUOTES

1 " Call them robbers and cutthroats--were they not amiable enough when they had sufficient to fill their bellies? Something was out of joint in a world that drove these men to steal. "

― Eiji Yoshikawa , The Heike Story: A Modern Translation of the Classic Tale of Love and War

2 " Is that so? He who lives in the mountains years for the city, and the city-dweller would rather live in the mountains," the Abbot chuckled, "and nothing is ever to one's liking... "

― Eiji Yoshikawa , The Heike Story: A Modern Translation of the Classic Tale of Love and War

3 " In the ashes on the hearth Saigyo traced and retraced the word, "pity." He had yet to learn to accept life with all its good and evils, to love life in all its manifestations by becoming one with nature. And for this he had abandoned home, wife, and child in that city of conflict. He had fled to save his own life, not for any grandiose dream of redeeming mankind; neither had he taken vows with the thoughts of chanting sutras to Buddha; nor did he aspire to brocaded ranks of the high prelates. Only by surrendering to nature could he best cherish his own life, learn how man should live, and therein find peace. And if any priest accused him of taking the vows out of self-love, not to purify the world and bring salvation to men, Saigyo was ready to admit that these charges were true and that he deserved to be reviled and spat upon as a false priest. Yet, if driven to answer for himself, he was prepared to declare that he who had not learned to love his own life could not love mankind, and that what he sought now was to love that life which was his. Gifts he had none to preach salvation or the precepts of Buddha; all that he asked was to be left to exist as humbly as the butterflies and the birds. "

― Eiji Yoshikawa , The Heike Story: A Modern Translation of the Classic Tale of Love and War

4 " Kiyomori dijo para sus adentros: "... ¡Ah, yo también quiero tener una esposa! ¿No habrá otra muchacha como ella en alguna parte del mundo?".
Tragó saliva y acto seguido se ruborizó por el sonido que produjo su garganta. De pronto le vino a la mente la imagen de Ruriko. Al mismo tiempo, recordaba la postura de la prostituta de Rokujou-Touin cuando estaba durmiendo. Al parecer, él ni siquiera sabía distinguir exactamente el objeto del amor. La idea que tenía del amor era la de un simple encuentro ocasional. En el caso de que pudiera tomar a alguien por esposa cuanto antes, no le importaba que fuese Ruriko, la prostituta de Rokujou-Touin o incluso otra cualquiera. "

― Eiji Yoshikawa , The Heike Story: A Modern Translation of the Classic Tale of Love and War