Banana Yoshimoto Kitchen Quotes

As I grow older, much older, I will experience many things, and I will hit rock bottom again and again. Again and again I will suffer; again and again I will get back on my feet. I will not be defeated. I won't let my spirit be destroyed.

People aren't overcome by situations or outside forces. Defeat comes from within.

No matter what, I want to continue living with the awareness that I will die. Without that, I am not alive.

Even when I try to stir myself up, I just get irritated because I can't make anything come out. And in the middle of the night I lie here thinking about all this. If I don't get back on track somehow, I'm dead, that's the sense I get. There isn't a single strong emotion inside me.

Truly happy memories always live on, shining. Over time, one by one, they come back to life.

I realized that the world did not exist for my benefit. It followed that the ratio of pleasant and unpleasant things around me would not change. It wasn't up to me. It was clear that the best thing to do was to adopt a sort of muddled cheerfulness.

Again and again I will suffer; again and again I will get back on my feet. I will not be defeated. I won't let my spirit be destroyed.

Truly great people emit a light that warms the hearts of those around them. When that light has been put out, a heavy shadow of despair descends.

When was it I realized that, on this truly dark and solitary path we all walk, the only way we can light is our own? Although I was raised with love, I was always lonely. Someday, without fail, everyone will disappear, scattered into the blackness of time.

From the bottom of my heart, I wanted to give up; I wanted to give up on living. There was no denying that tomorrow would come, and the day after tomorrow, and so next week, too. I never thought it would be this hard, but I would go on living in the midst of a glomy depression, and that made me feel sick to the depths of my soul. In spite of the tempest raging within me, I walked the night path calmly.

Over and over, we begin again.

Why is it we have so little choice? We live like the lowliest worms. Always defeated - defeated we make dinner, we eat, we sleep. Everyone we love is dying. Sill, to cease living is unacceptable.

In the uncertain ebb and flow of time and emotions much of one's life history is etched in the senses.

There are many, many difficult times, god knows. If a person wants to stand on her own two feet, I recommend undertaking the care and feeding of something. It could be children, or it could be house plants, you know? By doing that you come to understand your own limitations. That's where it starts.

Fate is a ladder on which you cannot afford to miss a single rung. To skip out on even one step would mean you'll never make it to the top.

It was at once a miracle and the most natural thing in the world.

Why is it that everything I eat when I’m with you is so delicious?’ I laughed. ‘Could it be that you’re satisfying hunger and lust at the same time?

The place I like best in this world is the kitchen. No matter where it is, no matter what kind, if it’s a kitchen, if it’s a place where they make food, it’s fine with me. Ideally it should be well broken in. Lots of tea towels, dry and immaculate. Where tile catching the light (ting! Ting!)

May the memory of this moment, here, the glowing impression of the two of us facing each other in this warm, bright place drinking lovely hot tea, help save him, even a little bit.

I held the feeling in my heart; the urge to discuss it died out. There was all the time in the world. In the endless repetition of other nights, other mornings, this moment, too, might become a dream.

To the extent that I had come to understand that despair does not necessarily result in annihilation, that one can go on as usual in spite of it, I had become hardened. Was this what it means to be an adult, to live with ugly ambiguities? I didn't like it, but it made it easier to go on.

Inching one's way along a steep cliff in the dark: on reaching the highway, one breathes a sigh of relief. Just when one can't take any more, one sees the moonlight. Beauty that seems to infuse itself into the heart: I know about that

Everyone lives the way she knows best. What I mean by 'their happiness' is living a life untouched as much as possible by the knowledge that we are really, all of us, alone. That's not a bad thing.

Just when one can't take anymore, one sees the moonlight. Beauty that seems to infuse itself into the heart: I know about that.

In the uncertain ebb and flow of time and emotions, much of one’s life history is etched in the senses. And things of no particular importance, or irreplaceable things, can suddenly resurface in a café one winter night.

Hitoshi: I'll never be able to be here again. As the minutes slide by, I move on. The flow of time is something I cannot stop. I haven't a choice. I go. One caravan has stopped, another starts up. There are people I've yet to meet, others I'll never see again. People who are gone before you know it, people who are just passing through. Even as we exchange hellos, they seem to grow transparent. I must keep living with the flowing river before my eyes. I earnestly pray that a trace of my girl-child self will always be with you. For waving good-bye, I thank you.

Me, when I'm utterly exhausted by it all, when my skin breaks out, on those lonely evenings when I call my friends again and again and nobody's home, then I despise my own life - my birth, my upbringing, everything.

With a cold"--she spoke evenly, lowering her eyes a little--"now is the hardest time. Maybe even harder than dying. But this is probably as bad as it can get. You might come to fear the next time you get a cold; it will be as bad as this, but if you just hold steady, it won't be. For the rest of your life. That's how it works. You could take the negative view and live in fear: Will it happen again? But it won't hurt so much if you just accept it as a part of life." With that she looked up at me, smiling.

Was that what it means to be an adult, to live with ugly ambiguities?

There are many days when all the awful things that happen make you sick at heart, when the path before you is so steep you can’t bear to look. Not even love can rescue a person from that.

In places where a loved one has died, time stops for eternity.

I wished my heart would break and get it over with.

If people I don't care for are attracted to me, I accept it as the wages of beauty.

At that moment I had a thrilling sharp intuition. I knew it as if I held it in my hands: In the gloom of death that surrounded the two of us, we were just at the point of approaching and negotiating a gentle curve. If we bypassed it, we would split off into different directions. In that case, we would forever remain just friends.

If a person hasn't ever experienced true despair, she grows old never knowing how to evaluate where she is in life; never understanding what joy really is.

I got dressed to begin another day. Over and over, we begin again. (Kitchen, 103)

it was clear that the best thing to do was to adopt a sort of muddled cheerfulness

In this world there is no place for sadness. No place; not one.

… I was thinking, listlessly, is this what it means to be happy? But now I feel it in my gut. Why is it we have so little choice? We live like the lowliest worms. Always defeated – defeated we make dinner, we eat, we sleep. Everyone we love is dying. Still, to cease living is unacceptable.

Cada vez que nos abrazábamos, conocí palabras que no eran palabras.

Stavo toccando con mano e vedendo con i miei occhi, per la prima volta, quanto fosse immenso il mondo e profondo l'oscurità e l'infinito fascino e solitudine di tutto ciò.

It was all your imagination. And imagination is sometimes worse than reality…

Chilled-looking people walking along the riverside, the snow beginning, faintly, to pile up on the roofs of cars, the bare trees shaking their heads left and right, dry leaves tossing in the wind. The silver of the metal window sash sparkling coldly. Soon after, I heard sensei call, "Mikage! Are you awake? It's snowing, look! It's snowing!" "I'm coming!" I called out, standing up. I got dressed to begin another day. Over and over, we begin again.

For some reason I keep getting connected to men who have something to do with plants.

Perhaps there are people in this world who love their fountain pens with every fiber of their being—and that's very sad. If you're not in love with him, you can understand him.

All I wanted was to get through this as quickly as possible, to see the day when memories be just memories.

Diventerò grande, accadranno tante cose e toccherò il fondo molte volte. Soffrirò molte volte e molte volte mi rimetterò in piedi. Non mi lascerò sconfiggere.

La felicidad es vivir sintiendo, lo menos posible, que el hombre, en realidad, está solo.

We live like the lowliest worms. Always defeated - defeated we make dinner, we eat, we sleep. Everyone we love is dying. Still, to cease living is unacceptable.

The room was so unearthly quiet, I lost all sense of time being divided into seconds. I felt that I was the only person alive and moving in a world brought to a stop.

Quanti anni avevo quand'ho capito che su quel sentiero buio e solitario l'unica luce possibile era quella che io stessa avrei emanato?

But if a person hasn't ever experienced true despair, she grows old never knowing how to evaluate where she is in life; never understanding what joy really is. I'm grateful for it.

We all believe we can choose our own path from among the many alternatives. But perhaps it's more accurate to say that we make the choice unconsciously. I think I did- but now I knew it, because now I was able to put it into words. But I don't mean this in the fatalistic sense; we're constantly making choices. With the breaths we take every day, with the expression in our eyes, with the daily actions we do over and over, we decide as though by instinct.

Begitulah, tapi kalau manusia sama sekali tidak pernah merasa putus asa, kita tidak akan tahu bagian mana dari diri kita yang tidak sanggup kita singkirkan. Lalu kita akan tumbuh dewasa tanpa benar-benar mengerti apa saja yang bisa membuat kita gembira. Aku bahagia karena bisa menderita

Con người không khuất phục dưới hoàn cảnh hay những thế lực từ bên ngoài, mà sẽ thua cuộc bắt đầu từ chính bên trong

Cuando crezca más y más, me pasarán cosas diferentes. Muchas veces me hundiré hasta el fondo. Muchas veces sufriré, muchas veces reapareceré. No habrá derrota. No dejaré de luchar

Los grandes hombres, sólo con existir, emiten una luz que ilumina a quienes están a su alrededor, y cuando esta luz se apaga proyecta una sombra pesada, irremediablemente.

Although I was raised with love, I was always lonely.

I see two lovers looking over the edge of the cauldron of hell. Are they contemplating a double suicide? This means their love will end in hell.' I couldn't stop laughing.

These women lived their lives happily. They had been taught, probably by loving parents, not to exceed the boundaries of their happiness regardless of what they were doing. But therefore they could never know real joy. Which is better? Who can say? Everyone lives the way she knows best. What I mean by 'their happiness' is living a life untouched as much as possible by the knowledge that we are really, all of us, alone. That's not a bad thing. Dressed in their aprons, their smiling faces like flowers, learning to cook, absorbed in their little troubles and perplexities, they fall in love and marry. I think that's great. I wouldn't mind that kind of life. Me, when I'm utterly exhausted by it all, my skin breaks out, on those lonely evenings when I call my friends again and again and nobody's home, then I despise my own life - my birth, my upbringing, everything. I feel only regret for the whole thing.

I had come to understand that despair does not necessarily result in annihilation, that one can go on as usual despite of it...

Die wirklich schönen Erinnerungen bleiben lebendig und haben einen unauslöschlichen Glanz. Sie pulsieren schmerzlich im Fluss der Zeit.

Okay,' I said, and waving, we parted. The feeling traveled to some infinitely distant place and disappeared.

Alguna vez, sin falta, todos iremos dispersándonos en la oscuridad del tiempo y desapareceremos...

People aren't overcome by situations or outside forces; defeat invades from within, I thought. I had lost my last ounce of strength. Before my eyes something was coming to an end, something I didn't want to end, but for which I lacked the energy to suffer, much less fight. There was only a leaden hopelessness in me.

Después cuando al fin lo conocí, pensé que transmitía una sensación de aislamiento, no se por qué. Aunque su forma de ser y de hablar eran dulces, me pareció que estaba solo.

Now only the kitchen and I are left. It's just a little nicer than being all alone.

Aunque sea cierto que la buena y la mala suerte existen, depender de ellas es una actitud muy cómoda.

Aunque seamos derrotados como gusanos, hacemos la comida, comemos y dormimos. Todas las personas que amamos mueren una tras otra. Y, a pesar de ello, tenemos que seguir viviendo.

El mundo no existe sólo para mí. El porcentaje de cosas amargas que me sucedan no variará. Yo no puedo decidirlo

People aren't overcome by situations or outside forces; defeat invades from within.

It’s so great, I thought, having tea in the afternoon with someone you really feel at home with.

Quiero seguir sintiendo a toda costa que algún día he de morir. De otro modo, no sentiría que estoy viviendo. Por eso, mi vida es así.

We've been very lonely, but we had it easy. Because death is so heavy - we, too young to know about it, couldn't handle it. After this you and I may end up seeing nothing but suffering, difficulty and ugliness, but if only you'll agree to it, I want for us to go on to more difficult places, happier places, what ever comes, together. I want you to make the decision after you're completely better, so take your time thinking about it. In the mean time, though, don't disappear on me.

El camino está siempre marcado, pero no en un sentido fatalista. Cada instante, con la respiración, con la mirada, y con los días que se repiten, uno tras otro, se va decidiendo espontáneamente.

Suddenly, to see that the world was so large, the cosmos so black. The unbounded fascination of it, the unbounded loneliness… For the first time, these days, I was touching it with these hands, these eyes. I've been looking at the world half-blind, I thought.

No matter what, I want to continue living with the awareness that I will die. Without that, I am not alive. That is what makes the life I have now possible. Inching one's way along a steep cliff in the dark: on reaching the highway, one breathes a sigh of relief. Just when one can't take any more, one sees the moonlight. Beauty that seems to infuse itself into the heart: I know about that.

Però, chi nella vita non conosce almeno una volta la disperazione e non capisce quali cose valgano veramente, diventa adulto senza avere mai capito che cosa sia veramente la gioia.

Hay cosas tan duras que dan ganas de apartar la vista. Ni siquiera el amor puede salvarte de todo.

El arrepentimiento nunca llega antes

Parting and death are both terribly painful. But to keep nursing the memory of a love so great you can’t believe you’ll ever love again is a useless drain on a woman’s energies.

Anche se sono stata allevata con amore, mi sono sempre sentita sola. Un giorno o l'altro tutti si perderanno nelle tenebre del tempo e scompariranno.

Non ero triste per qualcosa in particolare, piangevo per tante cose insieme.

Just being myself made me terribly sad.

May the memory of this moment, here, the glowing impression of the two of us facing each other in this warm, bright place, drinking lovely hot tea, help save him, even a little bit.

Nếu thực sự muốn một mình tự lập thì rất nên nuôi dưỡng một thứ gì đó. Như là một đứa con hay là lũ cây cảnh này này. Lúc đó, mình sẽ nhận ra giới hạn của mình. Bởi đó chính là sự khởi đầu cháu ạ

Soy hermosa. Yo brillo. Ya me he hecho a la idea de que por atraer a los demás, aunque sientas por ellos poco interés, hay que pagar un tributo. Por eso, en el caso de que sea asesinada, piensa que ha sido un accidente.

Kalau manusia sama sekali tidak pernah merasa putus asa, kita tidak akan tahu bagian mana dari diri kita yang tak sanggup kita singkirkan. Lalu kita akan tumbuh dewasa tanpa benar-benar mengerti apa saja yang bisa membuat kita gembira. Aku bahagia karena bisa menderita", Eriko (Kitchen)

I’ll never be able to be here again. As the minutes slide by, I move on. The flow of time is something I cannot stop. I haven’t a choice. I go. One caravan has stopped, another starts up. There are people I have yet to meet, others I’ll never see again. People who are gone before you know it, people who are just passing through. Even as we exchange hellos, they seem to grow transparent. I must keep living with the flowing river before my eyes.

Les mots sont toujours trop abrupts, ils éteignent ce qu’il y a de plus précieux dans ces fragiles étincelles.

In retrospect I realize that fate was a ladder on which, at the time, I could not afford to miss a single rung. To skip out on even one scene would have meant never making it to the top, although it would have been by far the easier choice. What motivated me was probably that little light still left in my half-dead heart, glittering in the darkness. Yet without it, perhaps, I might have slept better.

No matter how dreamlike a love I have found myself in, no matter how delightfully drunk I have been, in my heart I was always aware that my family consisted of only one other person. The space that cannot be filled, no matter how cheerfully a child and an old person are living together—the deathly silence that, panting in a corner of the room, pushes its way in like a shudder. I felt it very early, although no one told me about it.

Hitoshi. Yo ya no podré estar aquí. Voy hacia adelate cada instante. No hay más remedio, es el flujo del tiempo que no puede detenerse. Seguiré. Termina una caravana y empieza otra. Habrá personas a quienes encontraré de nuevo. También habrá otras a quienes no veré jamás. Las que se van sin que yo lo sepa, las que simplemente no se cruzan conmigo. Siento que soy cada vez más pura, intercambiando saludos con los demás. Debo vivir mirando cómo fluye el río. Ruego con todo mi corazón que sólo la imagen de una Satsuki joven permanezca siempre a tu lado. Gracias por decirme adiós con la mano. Gracias por decirme adiós con la mano, muchas, muchas veces.

From the bottom of my heart, I wanted to give up; I wanted to give up on living. There was no denying that tomorrow would come, and the day after tomorrow, and so next week, too. I never thought it would be this hard, but I would go on living in the midst of a gloomy depression, and that made me feel sick to the depths of my soul. In spite of the tempest raging within me, I walked the night path calmly.” "Bất chợt, từ sâu trong cõi lòng, tôi muốn quẳng đi tất cả, cả việc bước đi và việc phải sống tiếp. Chắc chắn rồi ngày mai sẽ tới, rồi ngày kia sẽ tới, và rất chóng, rồi tuần sau sẽ tới. Chưa bao giờ tôi cảm thấy điều ấy lại phiền lụy đến thế như lúc này. Tôi thực sự sợ khi phải nghĩ rằng, cả những lúc đó, tôi cũng sẽ phải sống trong đau buồn và u uẩn. Bão tố đang quần đảo trong lòng, vậy mà tôi vẫn bước đi bình thản, tôi bỗng thấy hình ảnh của mình khi ấy sao mà ảm đạm.

Until only recently, the light that bathed the now-empty apartment had contained the smells of our life there. The kitchen window. The smiling faces of friends, the fresh greenery of the university campus as a backdrop to Sotaro's profile, my grandmother's voice on the phone when i called her late at night, my warm bed on cold mornings, the sound of my grandmother's slippers in the hallway, the color of the curtains...the tatami mat...the clock on the wall. All of it. Everything that was no longer there.

When I'm dead worn out, in a reverie, I often think that when it comes time to die, I want to breathe my last in a kitchen. Whether it's cold and I'm all alone, or somebody's there and it's warm, I'll stare death fearlessly in the eye. If it's a kitchen, I'll think, 'How good.

Hitoshi: Não posso mais ficar aqui. A cada momento eu sigo em frente. É impossível deter o fluxo do tempo, não tenho escolha. Eu vou. Uma caravana pára e outra parte. Ainda há pessoas que tenho que conhecer, outras que jamais voltarei a encontrar. Pessoas que passam por mim sem que eu o perceba, pessoas com quem cruzo apenas. Mas á medida que as cumprimento, tenho a sensação de que ficam mais transparentes. Devo viver com os olhos voltados para a corrente do rio. Peço-lhe, do coração, que guarde para sempre junto de você a imagem da garota que eu fui. Obrigada por te-se despedido de mim acenando. Por ter-se despedido acenando muitas, muitas vezes.

Her hair rustled, brushing her shoulders. There are many days when all the awful things that happen make you sick at heart, when the path before you is so steep you can't bear to look. Not even love can rescue a person from that. Still, enveloped in the twilight coming from the west, there she was, watering the plants with her slender, graceful hands, in the midst of a light so sweet it seemed to form a rainbow in the transparent water she poured. "I think I understand." "I love your honest heart, Mikage. The grandmother who raised you must have been a wonderful person." I smiled. "She was." "You've been lucky," said Eriko. She laughed, her back to me.

We all believe we can choose our own path from among the many alternatives. But perhaps it’s more accurate to say that we make the choice unconsciously. I think I did – but now I knew it because now I was able to put it into words. But I don’t mean this in the fatalistic sense; we’re constantly making choices. With the breaths we take every day, with the expression in our eyes, with the daily actions we do over and over, we decide as though by instinct. And so some of us will inevitably find ourselves rolling around in a puddle on some roof in a strange place with a takeout katsudon in the middle of winter, looking up at the night sky, as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

Non c'è posto al mondo che io ami più della cucina. Non importa dove si trova, com'è fatta: purchè sia una cucina, un posto dove si fa da mangiare, io sto bene. Se possibile le preferisco funzionali e vissute. Magari con tantissimi strofinacci asciutti e puliti e le piastrelle bianche che scintillano. Anche le cucine incredibilmente sporche mi piacciono da morire.