The Tale of the Heike Quotes

“The sound of the Gion Shoja temple bells echoes the impermanence of all things; the color of the sala flowers reveals the truth that to flourish is to fall. The proud do not endure, like a passing dream on a night in spring; the mighty fall at last, to be no more than dust before the wind.”
― Helen Craig McCullough, The Tale of the Heike

“The bells of the Gion monastery in India echo with the warning that all things are impermanent. The blossoms of the sala trees teach us through their hues that what flourishes must fade. The proud do not prevail for long but vanish like a spring night’s dream. In time the mighty, too, succumb: all are dust before the wind.”
― Heike, The Tale of the Heike

“The Jetavana Temple bells
ring the passing of all things.
Twinned sala trees, white in full flower,
declare the great man's certain fall.
The arrogant do not long endure:
They are like a dream one night in spring.
The bold and brave perish in the end:
They are as dust before the wind.”
― Royall Tyler, The Tale of the Heike

“So it is that in our world
hopes are thwarted at every turn
and the people's lot is always pain.”
― Royall Tyler, The Tale of the Heike

“The sovereign is a ship, his people water.
Water keeps the ship afloat;
water can capsize it as well.
Subjects sustain their sovereign;
subjects also overthrow him.”
― Anonymous, The Tale of the Heike

“From a lament by Nōin Hōshi, included in the early-thirteenth-century anthology Shinkokinshū: “I, who live on, saw the autumn moon again this year, but I shall not see again the friend I have lost.”
― Anonymous, The Tale of the Heike

“Perhaps the whole thing is a dream, they thought, and yet it seemed real. Surely it must be real—yet it was still like a dream.”
― Anonymous, The Tales of the Heike

“He whose fame had so resounded the whole length and breadth of Japan, who had wielded colossal power, Kiyomori, in an instant floated as smoke into the sky over the city, while the remains mingled soon with the sands of the shore, and all he had been returned to earth.”
― Anonymous, The Tale of the Heike

“So be it, cuckoo!
Let us, you and I, compare
the flow of our tears,
for I, too, in this sad world
do little but lift my cry.”
― Anonymous, The Tale of the Heike

“Cuckoo, when you come
seeking from the orange tree
that sweetest fragrance,
do you call out of yearning
for your loves of long ago?”
― Anonymous, The Tale of the Heike

“Fighting back tears of parting, he tugged at her sleeve.

Your presence with me
and this dewdrop life of mine
have this in common:
that tonight, for all I know,
the end is to come for both.

Striving likewise not to cry, she replied,

If this is the end
and the two of us must part,
then this dewdrop, too,
is certain to melt away,
my love, even before you.”
― Anonymous, The Tale of the Heike

“No man, high or low, can keep from treading the path of love.
For a husband and wife above all, a single night spent side by side
confirms, they say, a bond established over five hundred lives.
A tie founded so long in the past is very far from casual.
All those who are born must die, it is true. All who meet must part.
That is simply the way of this world.
As one dewdrop may fall in its time from the tip of a leaf
and another trickle straight down the stem to the root,
one will precede the other sooner or later.
Could the moment for that parting then never come?”
― Anonymous, The Tale of the Heike

“I have lost Tomoakira.
Kenmotsu Tarō, too, is dead.
Nothing is left me but despair.
What kind of man would see his son
challenge the foe to save his father
and then ...? What kind of man, I say,
seeing him stricken, would not save him
but rather, like me, run away?
Ah, what sharp words I would have had
for anyone who had done the same!
But now that that man is myself,
I have learned all too convincingly
how desperately one clings to life.
What other people must think of me now,
I can only shudder to imagine.”
― Anonymous, The Tale of the Heike

“There is a book where it is written:
'Who refuses what heaven offers,
the same shall incur heaven's blame;
failure to act when the time comes
invites nothing but disaster.”
― Anonymous, The Tale of the Heike

“No wonder everyone sought, by hook or by crook, alliance with the Heike. All alive within the four seas mimicked the ways of Rokuhara,14 down to the mere cut of a robe or crease of a hat.”
― Anonymous, The Tale of the Heike

“The loyal subject serves not two lords. The chaste woman knows no second man.”
― Anonymous, The Tale of the Heike

“(song) The Jetavana Temple bells ring the passing of all things. Twinned sal trees, white in full flower, declare the great man’s certain fall.1 The arrogant do not long endure: They are like a dream one night in spring.”
― Heike, The Tale of the Heike

“In this world of dreams and illusions, why should a man be burdened even for a moment with an ugly woman whom he dislikes?”
― Hiroshi Kitagawa, The Tale of the Heike

“A sense of close companionship
Can grow out of such brief encounters --
Such brief interludes --
Two strangers may stand close together
Under a tree to take shelter from a summer shower,
Or they may share a drink at the same spring.
This is the fulfillment of a promise
Made in a former life.”
― Hiroshi Kitagawa, The Tale of the Heike

“If you are truly in love with me, you must keep thin. Since you have grown stouter, I do not believe that you love me any longer.”
― Hiroshi Kitagawa, The Tale of the Heike

“Yoshinaka, however, paid no heed to this warning, and so Iemitsu decided to kill himself in protest.”
― Hiroshi Kitagawa, The Tale of the Heike

“this book what it is.”
― Anonymous, The Tale of the Heike

“gainsay him.”
― Anonymous, The Tale of the Heike