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Quote by Banana Yoshimoto

“Every so often night plays these little tricks. A knot of air pushes quietly through the darkness, and a feeling that has converged in some far-off place tumbles down like a falling star and lands just in front of you, and then you wake up. Two people live the same dream. All this takes place in the space of a single night, and the feeling only lasts until morning. The next morning it gets lost in the light, and you’re no longer even sure it happened. But nights like this are long. They continue forever, glittering like a jewel.”

Quote by Banana Yoshimoto

Work

Goodbye Tsugumi

Goodbye Tsugumi is a work of fiction by Japanese author Banana Yoshimoto. The story is narrated by Maria, who returns to her family's seaside inn to spend time with her cousin Tsugumi, a fiercely independent and often difficult young woman who suffers from a chronic illness. Set against the backdrop of a fading coastal resort, the novel explores themes of family bonds, the pain of change, and the bittersweet nature of farewells. Through Maria's memories and observations, the narrative captures the intensity of Tsugumi's personality and the emotional weight of a last shared summer before the inn closes and the cousins' lives diverge. The book is known for its lyrical prose and gentle, melancholic atmosphere. more

Author

Banana Yoshimoto
Banana Yoshimoto

Banana Yoshimoto is a Japanese writer celebrated for her minimalist and introspective style. Born on July 24, 1964, she gained prominence in the 1990s with her novel 'Kitchen'. Yoshimoto's works often delve into themes of loneliness, youth, and the complexities of human relationships. more

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“În ziua aceea, am crezut că dețin ceva, un adevăr care-mi va schimba viața. Însă nimic de această natură nu e dobândit pentru totdeauna. Lumea trece prin noi ca o apă și pentru o vreme ne împrumută aparența ei. Apoi se retrage și ne lasă în fața vidului pe care-l purtăm în noi, în fața acestui soi de incapacitate capitală a sufletului pe care trebuie să învățăm s-o suportăm, s-o înfruntăm și care, paradoxal, e poate resortul nostru cel mai sigur.”

“Imagine someone from that future could go back in time and talk to you—someone who lives at a time in which mankind only inhabits one planet, who is arguably among the final generations of humans capable of permanently changing the future of human cultures across thousands of planets by creating a durable culture and high-fertility-rate family that carries prosocial values into the future. Why would you tell them you didn’t make an effort to fix things while one person's efforts could still make a difference?”

“Over the next two hours, I would learn something about time. Something devastating. There are moments in life when time moves with its own will, not bound by any timekeeper's measure. It may speed up, passing so fast that life itself becomes a blur, a memory before it is a moment. On a different occasion, time may slow to a crawl, each second becoming an hour, a day, or a lifetime. Which means that time cannot be trusted.”

“I laugh because it is hilarious. The thing humans think we are is just so different and they have even made movies that I’ve seen, they are just joke, literally. “The version humans have made of us is extremely strange. We can die from a gun made from obsidian and knives made of pure molten rock. But other then that we are im- mortal, we can get ill but there are ways to never be ill, there are ways to never be mur- dered, so we are practically immortal what a shame that humans are completely mortal, you can’t stop illness like we can and you certainly can die from an abundance of things. But I am sure you live your lives to the fullest, right? Not a single day goes by without doing something worth remembering, right?”

“Basically, we are all responsible for the preservation of our personal joy; but happiness is different. Joy is not circumstantial, happiness is. You can be depressed and still have joy. You can be suicidal and still have joy. We all stop thinking and we all stop talking and we all stop sharing and we all stop creating, because by doing any of these things we quickly find out just how unhappy we are. But that's okay. That's normal. Don't let the fear of unhappiness cripple your pursuit of finding what it is you believe. Since joy is found in belief, we all have to push through unhappiness to find joy. Basically.”