Akutagawa Ryunosuke Quotes

A man sometimes devotes his life to a desire which he is not sure will ever be fulfilled. Those who laugh at this folly are, after all, no more than mere spectators of life.

I could wish for nothing more than to die for a childish dream in which I truly believed.

I don't have the strength to keep writing this. To go on living with this feeling is painful beyond description. Isn't there someone kind enough to strangle me in my sleep?

Isn't there someone kind enough to come strangle me in my sleep?

I have heard unsavory rumors about you and the umbrella-maker's daughter

But surely the will to create was a form of the will to live...?

People say they need freedom, but in fact, nobody wants freedom.

Não tenho consciência de qualquer espécie, nem mesmo artística. Sensibilidade é tudo que tenho.

...O-suzu left whatever work she was doing at her sewing machine and dragged Takeo back to O-yoshi and her son. How dare you behave so selfishly! Now tell O-yoshi-san that you are sorry. Get down on the mats and make a proper bow!

...we could see the parapet of Ryougoku Bridge, arching above the waves that flickered in the faint mid-autumn twilight and against the sky, as though an immense black Chinese ink stroke had been brushed across it. The silhouettes of the traffic, horses and carriages soon faded into the vaporous mist, and now all that could be seen were the dots of reddish light from the passengers' lanterns, rapidly passing to and fro in the darkness like small winter cherries.

While still a student, Napoleon had written on the last page of his geography book: "St. Helena. Small island." This may have been what we call a coincidence, but the thought must certainly have aroused terror in him in his last days.

О содеянном тобою зле скажи сам, и зло исчезнет само собой.

Toujours pareil, je me bourre de médicaments. Rien que des somnifères, c'est tout un poème ! Véronal, Neuronal, Trional, Numal…

Had he lived longer, Akutagawa might have come to realize that he was far from alone.

Não conseguia pensar em nada que desejasse especialmente na vida, excepto aquelas faíscas de cor púrpura - aquelas flores de fogo desabrochando selvaticamente -; daria a vida para poder segurá-las-

He moved on from Anatole France to the eighteenth-century philosophers, though not to Rousseau. Perhaps this was because one side of him - the side easily moved by passion - was too close to Rousseau. Instead, he approached the author of 'Candide', who was closer to another side of him - the cool and richly intellectual side. At twenty-nine, life no longer held any brightness for him, but Voltaire supplied him with man-made wings. Spreading these man-made wings, he soared with ease into the sky. The higher he flew, the farther below him sank the joys and sorrows of a life bathed in the light of intellect. Dropping ironies and smiles upon the shabby towns below, he climbed through the open sky, straight for the sun - as if he had forgotten about that ancient Greek who plunged to his death in the ocean when his man-made wings were singed by the sun.

Зато нет для нас, людей, ничего более нелепого, нежели роды у каппы. Через несколько дней после моего разговора с Чакком у жены Багга начались роды, и я отправился в хибарку Багга посмотреть, как это происходит. Роды у капп происходят так же, как у нас. Роженице помогают врач и акушерка. Но перед началом родов каппа-отец, прижавшись ртом к чреву роженицы, во весь голос, словно по телефону, задает вопрос: "Хочешь ли ты появиться на свет? Хорошенько подумай и отвечай!" Такой вопрос несколько раз повторил и Багг, стоя на коленях возле жены. Затем он встал и прополоскал рот дезинфицирующим раствором из чашки, стоявшей на столе. Тогда младенец, видимо стесняясь, едва слышно отозвался из чрева матери: - Я не хочу рождаться. Во-первых, меня пугает отцовская наследственность - хотя бы его психопатия. И кроме того, я уверен, что каппам не следует размножаться.