Osamu Dazai 太宰 治 1909-1948 ‘No Longer Human’ 人間失格 (1948)
“Women found in me a man who could keep a love secret.” p.38
“To fall for, to be fallen for – I feel in these words something unspeakably vulgar, farcical, and at the same time extraordinarily complacent. Once these expressions put in an appearance, no matter how solemn the place, the silent cathedrals of melancholy crumble, leaving nothing but an impression of fatuousness. It is curious, but the cathedrals of melancholy are not necessarily demolished if one can replace the vulgar What a messy business it is to be fallen for by the more literary What uneasiness lies in being loved.” p.47
“(...) something like a silent current of misery an inch wide flowed over the surface of her body. When I lay next to her my body was developed in her current, which mingled with my own harsher current of gloom like withered leaf settling to rest on the stones at the bottom of a pool. I had freed myself from fear and uneasiness”. p.80
