River Mist and Other Stories Quotes

“Not all the leaves have fallen yet. When I look at the distant mountains, my heart is filled with yearning and longs to vanish into them.”
― Doppo Kunikida, River Mist and Other Stories

“But the point is, you can't eat ideals,...ideals are a side-dish for reality!”
― Doppo Kunikida, River Mist and Other Stories

“...there are older people, teachers for example, of whom it is insufficient merely to say that they are unforgettable. People who have helped you in some significant way, I mean. You have to admit that these people are worthy to be remembered. Since they have sworn no oath of duty or affection for you, they have no obligation to you. You are just a stranger to them, and even when, by the very nature of things, you have forgotten them, it does not mean that you are lacking in affection or sense of obligation. However, there are some people in this world that you can just never forget.”
― Doppo Kunikida, River Mist and Other Stories

“The hill, the river and the moon looked as they always had done, but he knew that some of his friends of earlier days must now lie in this graveyard where he was sitting. He felt that the river of his life had almost run its course to the sea and only a semi-transparent membrane separated him from his dear friends.”
― Doppo Kunikida, River Mist and Other Stories

“I can never thank my parents enough for giving me the oppor­tunity to grow up in the country. If I had gone with my parents to somewhere like Tokyo when I was seven years old, I should be a completely different person. I believe that ... my heart would not have been capable of receiving and understanding the noble sentiments of poetry. As it was, I spent seven of the happiest years in my life roaming around the fields and hills near my home.”
― Doppo Kunikida, River Mist and Other Stories

“I went for a moonlit stroll. Palls of blue smoke crept over the earth and in the moonlight was shattered against the trees.”
― Doppo Kunikida, River Mist and Other Stories

“It would be nothing short of folly to trace your way home by the same path along which you came...and there is much to be gained from heading in your homeward direction by a totally new path.”
― Doppo Kunikida, River Mist and Other Stories

“...it remains for me to say that Toyokichi himself was a good man. He had talent certainly, but he lacked staying-power. Or rather, he did have staying-power as such, but somewhere in the core of his being there was a weakness and he was apt to miss out on essentials. He was rather like a stick which, although struck against an object with full force, produces a dull thud rather than the clear crack you would expect. He was a good man, full of the best intentions, but he lacked courage, or perhaps it would be better to say that he lacked spirit.”
― Doppo Kunikida, River Mist and Other Stories