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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Kwaidan by Lafcadio Hearn: And old Japanese proverb declares that even a devil is pretty at eighteen:
Oni mo jiu-hachi azami no hana: "Even a devil at eighteen,
flower-of-the-thistle."
[10] Or perhaps the verses might be more effectively rendered thus: "Happy
together, do you say? Yes -- if we should be reborn as field-butterflies in
some future life: then we might accord!" This poem was composed by the
celebrated poet Issa, on the occasion of divorcing his wife.
[11] Or, Tare no tama? [Digitizer's note: Hearn's note calls attention to
an alternative reading of the ideogram for "spirit" or "soul."]
[12] Literally, "Butterfly-pursing heart I wish to have always;' -- i.e.,
I would that I might always be able to find pleasure in simple things, like
Kwaidan |
