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.
Banana YoshimotoHer eyes were those of someone who's just fallen in love, someone who sees nothing but her lover, someone who has no fear of anything. The eyes of someone who believes that every dream will come true, that reality will move if you just give it a push.
Banana YoshimotoOn nights like this when the air is so clear, you end up saying things you ordinarily wouldnโt. Without even noticing what youโre doing, you open up your heart and just start talking to the person next to youโyou talk as if you have no audience but the glittering stars, far overhead.
Banana YoshimotoI felt how important the simplest things were, like feeling proud, finding something funny, stretching yourself, retreating into yourself.
Banana YoshimotoOf course, itโs true that sometimes the pink at sunrise somehow seems brighter than the pink at sunset, and that when youโre feeling down the the landscape seems darker too - you see things through the filter of your own sensibility. But the things themselves, out there, they donโt change. They existed, and thatโs all there is to it.
Banana Yoshimoto