#ueda akinari

The moon glows on the river, wind rustles the pines. Long night clear evening--what are they for?

He who fails to control his mind becomes a demon; he who governs his mind attains to buddhahood.

No one else can know the resentment of one who dies of longing, waiting for another to come.

There’s obviously a difference between a person with talent, and one without: even a gifted father can’t always pass on his skills to his son. On the contrary, literature and poetry must be born from one’s own heart—how can they be based on some kind of teaching? Of course, in most arts you must take your first steps under a teacher’s guidance. But as you progress further, what special training can there be, outside of the standards you yourself erect as guideposts? ...Only when you have realized your own creative powers, will your art be truly your own.

It can be said that an inability to express even a fragment of one’s thoughts is more moving than the feelings of one skilled with words.