Ciel

“Would the mountain cherry blossoms return my affection for there is no one else out here. /

もろともに あはれと思へ 山桜 花よりほかに 知る人もなし”
― Former Chief Abbot Gyoson

“Oh, you cherry petals, On this calm and balmy day, Why are you so restless, So keen to fly away? /

ひさかたの 光のどけき 春の日に しづ心なく 花の散るらむ”
― Ki no Tomonori

“You may feel the human realm is a difficult place, but there is surely no better world to live in. You will find another only by going to the nonhuman; and the nonhuman realm would surely be a far more difficult place to inhabit than the human.

So if this best of worlds proves a hard one for you, you must simply do your best to settle in and relax as you can, and make this short life of ours, if only briefly, an easier place in which to make your home. Herein lies the poet's true calling, the artist's vocation. We owe our humble gratitude to all practitioners of the arts, for they mellow the harshness of our human world and enrich the human heart.

Yes, a poem, a painting, can draw the sting of troubles from a troubled world and lay in its place a blessed realm before our grateful eyes.”
― Sōseki Natsume, The Three-Cornered World

“A world where falling in love requires marrying is a world where novels require reading from beginning to end.”
― Sōseki Natsume, The Three-Cornered World