β
If you aren't the woman I think you are, then this isn't the world I thought it was.
β
β
Arthur Golden (Memoirs of a Geisha)
β
Can't you see? Every step I have taken, since I was that child on the bridge, has been to bring myself closer to you.
β
β
Arthur Golden (Memoirs of a Geisha)
β
Well, a peach has a lovely taste and so does a mushroom, but you can't put the two together...
β
β
Arthur Golden (Memoirs of a Geisha)
β
If he couldn't forgive you for what you'd done, it was clear to me he was never truly your destiny.
β
β
Arthur Golden (Memoirs of a Geisha)
β
And suddenly everything around me seemed to grow quiet, as if he were the wind that blew and I were just a cloud carried upon it.
β
β
Arthur Golden (Memoirs of a Geisha)
β
My tears simply broke through the fragile wall
that had held them, and with a terrible feeling of shame, I laid my head upon the table and let them drain out of me.
β
β
Arthur Golden (Memoirs of a Geisha)
β
Hatsumomo's lovely smille grew... until her lips were as rich and full as drops of blood beading at the edge of a wound
β
β
Arthur Golden (Memoirs of a Geisha)
β
But, Mameha-san, I donβt want kindness!β
βDonβt you? I thought we all wanted kindness. Perhaps what you mean is that you want something more than kindness. And that is something youβre in no position to ask.
β
β
Arthur Golden (Memoirs of a Geisha)
β
I wasnβt thanking him for the coin, or even for the trouble heβd taken in stopping to help me. I was thanking him for... well,
for something Iβm not sure I can explain even now. For showing me that something besides cruelty could be found in the world, I suppose.
β
β
Arthur Golden (Memoirs of a Geisha)
β
When I said these words, all the heat in my body seemed to rise to my face. I felt I might float up into the air, just like a piece of ash from a fire.
β
β
Arthur Golden (Memoirs of a Geisha)
β
And when I raised myself to look at the man whoβd spoken, I had a feeling of leaving my misery behind me there on the stone wall.
β
β
Arthur Golden (Memoirs of a Geisha)
β
When I unwrapped the moth from its funeral shroud, it was the same startlingly lovely creature as on the day I had entombed it. Everything about it seemed beautiful and perfect, and so utterly unchanged.
β
β
Arthur Golden (Memoirs of a Geisha)
β
But what I could see out of the corner of my eye made me think of two lovely bundles of silk floating along a stream. In a moment they were hovering on the walkway in front of me, where they sank down and smoothed their kimono across their knees.
β
β
Arthur Golden (Memoirs of a Geisha)
β
The moment I formulated this thought, everything aroud me seemed to droop heavily toward the earth. Outside in the garden, the eaves of the roof dripped rain like beads of weighted glass. Even the mats themselves seemed to press down upon the floor. I remember thinking that I was dacing to express not the pain of a young woman who has lost her supernatural lover, but the pain I myself would feel when my life was finally robbed of the one thing I cared most deeply about. I found myself thinking,too,of satsu; I danced the bitterness of our eternal separation.By the end I felt almost overcome with grief; but I certainly wasn't prepared for what I saw when I turned to look at the Chairman.He was sitting at the near corner of the table so that, as it happened, no one but me could see him. I thought he wore an expression of astonishment at first, because his eyes were so wide. But just as his mouth sometimes twitched when he tried not to smile, now I could see it twitching under the strain of a different emotion. I couldn't be sure, but I had to impression his eyes were heavy with tears. He looked toward the door, pretending to scratch the side of his nose so he cold wipe a finger in the corner of his eye; and he smoothed his eyebrows as if the were the source of his trouble. I was so shocked to see the Chairman in pain I felt almost disoriented for a moment.
β
β
Arthur Golden (Memoirs of a Geisha)
β
People in the village often said she ought to have been extremely attractive, because her parents had been. Well, a peach has a lovely taste and so does a mushroom, but you can't put the two together; this was the terrible trick nature had played on her.
β
β
Arthur Golden (Memoirs of a Geisha)
β
that droplet of moisture that had slipped from me like a tear seemed almost to tell the story of my life. It fell through empty space, with no control whatsoever over its destiny; rolled along a path of silk; and somehow came to rest there on the teeth of that dragon. I thought of the petals Iβd thrown into the Kamo River shallows outside Mr. Arashinoβs workshop, imagining they might find their way to the Chairman. It seemed to me that, somehow, perhaps they had.
β
β
Arthur Golden (Memoirs of a Geisha)
β
Now she took a close look at me for the first time, puffing on her pipe while the old woman beside her sighed. I didnt feel I could look at Mother directly, but I had the impression of smoke seeping out of her face like steam from a crack in the earth. I was so curious about her that my eyes took on a life of their own and began to dart about. The more I saw of her, the more fascinated I became. Her kimono was yellow, with willowy branches bearing lovely green and orange leaves; it was made of silk gauze as delicate as a spiders web. Her obi was every bit as astonishing to me. It was a lovely gauzy texture too, but heavier-looking, in russet and brown with gold threads woven through. The more I looked at her clothing, the less I was aware of standing there in that dirt corridor, or of wondering what had become of my sister and my mother and father and what would become of me.
β
β
Arthur Golden
β
I don't misjudge people. If you aren't the woman I think you are, then this isn't the world I thought it was.
β
β
Arthur Golden (Memoirs of a Geisha)