Mono No Aware Quotes

“Saatnya angin berbau asin datang dari laut.
Hari ini, aku akan bermain gekkin untukmu.
Suara denting senar melebur bersama udara, meresap dalam panca indera.
Terlihat seperti wewangian apakah nada-nada ini...
Dengan terlahirnya lagu ini, keberadaanmu mendapatkan makna baru.
Kalau bersedia, bernyanyilah bersamaku. Masih ada waktu sebelum gelap.
Waktu yang paling indah.”
― Hitoshi Ashinano, ヨコハマ買い出し紀行 4 [Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou 4]

“I'm here to tell you the tide will never stop coming in.

I'm here to tell you whatever you build will be ruined, so make it beautiful.”
― Hala Alyan

“One lovely twilight, with the near garden in riotous bloom, Genji stepped onto a gallery that gave him a view of the sea, and such was the supernal grace of his motionless figure that he seemed in that setting not to be of this world at all. Over soft white silk twill and aster 49 he wore a dress cloak of deep blue, its sash only very casually tied; and his voice slowly chanting “I, a disciple of the Buddha Shakyamuni…” 50 was more beautiful than any they had ever heard before. From boats rowing by at sea came a chorus of singing voices. With a pang he watched them, dim in the offing, like little birds borne on the waters, and sank into a reverie as cries from lines of geese on high mingled with the creaking of oars, until tears welled forth, and he brushed them away with a hand so gracefully pale against the black of his rosary that the young gentlemen pining for their sweethearts at home were all consoled.”
― Murasaki Shikibu, The Tale of Genji

“He glanced back at his ship, and a sigh escaped his lips, his heart fraught with the appreciation and melancholy that understanding his own situation must evince. His place as Captain of such a crew was as evanescent as the rest of life, and while they were all collected together now, being of the same character, the same mind, having the same predilections and ambitions, there was no saying when it might be over. He might be called away on urgent business, or his crew might grow anxious for a more settled life, Rannig might wish to return home, or the Director of the Marridon Academy might finally rot, calling Bartleby back to Marridon for the promotion he so richly deserved. He exhaled, reveling in the pining sigh of impermanence which living in such uncertainty must produce.”
― Michelle Franklin, The Leaf Flute - A Marridon Novella

“În ziua aceea, am crezut că dețin ceva, un adevăr care-mi va schimba viața. Însă nimic de această natură nu e dobândit pentru totdeauna. Lumea trece prin noi ca o apă și pentru o vreme ne împrumută aparența ei. Apoi se retrage și ne lasă în fața vidului pe care-l purtăm în noi, în fața acestui soi de incapacitate capitală a sufletului pe care trebuie să învățăm s-o suportăm, s-o înfruntăm și care, paradoxal, e poate resortul nostru cel mai sigur.”
― Nicolas Bouvier, The Way of the World

“Every so often night plays these little tricks. A knot of air pushes quietly through the darkness, and a feeling that has converged in some far-off place tumbles down like a falling star and lands just in front of you, and then you wake up. Two people live the same dream. All this takes place in the space of a single night, and the feeling only lasts until morning. The next morning it gets lost in the light, and you’re no longer even sure it happened. But nights like this are long. They continue forever, glittering like a jewel.”
― Banana Yoshimoto, Goodbye Tsugumi

“I smooth my jeans and look out the window at the park we're passing. A couple kisses under a cherry blossom tree, their bodies lit from behind by a street lamp. Blooms flutter around them like paper snow. The buds have just opened and already they're dying. Mono no aware---it's a Japanese phrase expressing a love for impermanence, the ephemeral nature of all things.”
― Emiko Jean, Tokyo Ever After

“The most difficult thing about life is how everything feels just as fleeting as it does endless.”
― J. Andrew Schrecker