Status Updates From Mar Inquieto

"THE Utajima-maru returned to Kobe several days behind schedule. So by the time the captain and Shinji and Yasuo reached the island, where they were to have returned before mid-August, in time for the lunar-calendar Lantern Festival, the festivities were already over."

-Mishima, Yukio. The Sound of Waves (pg. 166)

"Perhaps Prince Deki was a heavenly being who descended to a nameless land. Perhaps he lived out his earthly years without being recognized and, do what he would, will as he could, was never separated from happiness, nor from the blessings of Heaven. Perhaps this is the reason why his remains were interred in a mound overlooking the beautiful Five League Beach and Hachijo Isle, leaving behind not a single story.…"

"IN THIS WAY the spring had neared its end."

Mishima, Yukio. The Sound of Waves (pg. 119)

"Everything was back to normal. His became again an existence in which everything was understood without the need for words. The cupboard, the wall clock, his mother, his brother, the old sooty cookstove, the sea’s roaring … folded in these familiar arms, Hiroshi slept soundly."

-Mishima, Yukio. The Sound of Waves (pg. 96)

"On Uta-jima a teacher’s position depended upon the disposition of the mothers. One teacher had been branded a Communist by the mothers and driven off the island, while another, who was popular with the mothers, had even gotten one of the women teachers pregnant—and still been promoted to be acting assistant-principal."

-Mishima, Yukio. The Sound of Waves (pg. 57)

“That Shinji-san—he’s really the bashful one, isn’t he, Father?” the mistress said, laughing.

The lone sound of her laughter echoed through the house. Neither the lighthouse-keeper nor Hatsue even smiled.

Mishima, Yukio. The Sound of Waves (pg. 49)

"UNTIL NOW the boy had been leading a peaceful, contented existence, poor though he was, but from this time on he became tormented with unrest and lost in thought, falling prey to the feeling that there was nothing about him that could possibly appeal to Hatsue."

-Mishima, Yukio. The Sound of Waves (pg.33)

"Even so, when that day’s fishing was almost done, the sight of a white freighter sailing against the evening clouds on the horizon filled the boy’s heart with strange emotions. From far away the world came pressing in upon him with a hugeness he had never before apprehended. The realization of this unknown world came to him like distant thunder, now pealing from afar, now dying away to nothingness."

Mishima, Yukio.

The girl drew her eyebrows together slightly. But she continued staring fixedly out to sea, never turning her eyes toward the boy.

Finishing his silent scrutiny, he had gone quickly on his way.…

Mishima, Yukio. The Sound of Waves (pg. 7)