Quotes from The Tale of Genji

Quotations follow the Arthur Waley translation (Tuttle Publishing, 2010) — our recommended edition.

1. 2

   Anything whatsoever may become the subject of a novel, provided only that it happens in this mundane life and not in some fairyland beyond our human ken.

2. 3

   It does not simply consist in the author's telling a story about the adventures of some other person. On the contrary, it happens because the storyteller's own experience of men and things, whether for good or ill, has moved him to an emotion so passionate that he can no longer keep it shut up in his heart.

3. 4

   The memories of long love gather like drifting snow, poignant as the mandarin ducks who float side by side in sleep.

4. 5

   Real things in the darkness seem no realer than dreams.

5. 6

   It is in general the unexplored that attracts us, and Genji tended to fall most deeply in love with those who gave him least encouragement.

6. 7

   A man's heart is a very strange amalgam indeed!

7. 8

   I have finally realized how rarely you will find a flawless woman, one who is simply perfect.

8. 9

   No art or learning is to be pursued halfheartedly... and any art worth learning will certainly reward more or less generously the effort made to study it.

9. 10

   Ceaseless as the interminable voices of the bell-cricket, all night till dawn my tears flow.

10. 11

    I have never thought there was much to be said in favor of dragging on long after all one's friends were dead.