Eiji Yoshikawa

“kalau agama itu ajaran sehat, kita tak akan membutuhkan nabi-nabi untuk menyampaikannya kepada kita.-Takuan”

“Is there anything that will not decay?”

“Menurut satu aliran pemikiran, jika seseorang menguasai satu keterampilan, dia telah menguasai seluruh ilmu. Ilmu bela diri bukan jurus-jurus belaka-- ilmu bela diri menyangkut kematangan jiwa. Jika seseorang mengolah jiwanya dengan sungguh-sungguh, orang itu mampu menguasai segala sesuatu, termasuk seni belajar dan pemerintahan. Dia memandang dunia apa adanya, dan sanggup menilai orang.”

“Seorang samurai tidak bekerja sekadar untuk mengisi perut. Dia bukan budak makanan. Dia hidup untuk memenuhi panggilannya, untuk kewajiban dan pengabdian. Makanan hanyalah tambahan, sebuah berkah dari surga. Jangan menjadi laki-laki yang, karena terlalu sibuk mencari makan, menghabiskan hidupnya dalam kebimbangan.”

“It is easy to surpass a predecessor, but difficult to avoid being surpassed by a successor.”

“Hold on to your life and make it honest and brave.”

“See, see how the sun has moved onward while we talked. Nothing can stop it in its course. Prayers cannot halt the revolving of nature. It is the same with human life. Victory and defeat are one in the vast stream of life. Victory is the beginning of defeat, and who can rest safely in victory? Impermanence is the nature of all things of this world. Even you will find your ill fortunes too will change. It is easy to understand the impatience of the old, whose days are numbered, but why should you young ones fret when the future is yours?”

“Not only must a warrior be strong with his bow, but he must have a heart full of pity for all living creatures.”

“Ah, you pitiful, pitiful creatures! Beautiful family! Nobler far than stupid men..." he cried softly to himself. What was he doing here with his arrow? Cornering these creatures? Armor--an armor to brag about! Save his dignity before that armor-maker because of a promise? Foolish...foolish! If the old man jeered at him, why should it matter anymore; a common suit of armor would do as well! Armor did not make a man, nor did it signify valor."Dumb creatures that you are, how magnificent! Sorrow, love--parental love incarnate! Were I that fox--what if Tokiko and Shigemori were trapped like this? Even the beast can rise above itself--could I as much?”

“Don't yield! Keep up your courage! The same sun looks down on all of us!”

“Die? Then so be it.”

“Should misfortune visit the Court, that can only be the result of its continued abuses. If the palace is attacked, that can only be the result of misgovernment. I can hardly be held responsible for the outcome.”

“I seem to hear thousands of voices--the voices of the common folk in the marketplace--urging me to go forward and do what must be done. More is at stake now than my life. On me turns the future of the warriors. Let's not quibble longer, lest this rare opportunity slip through my fingers.”

“I can only bow to the will of the heaven, but not to the will of these men.”

“Through his mad fancying he remembered Mokunosuke's words: "Whoever you are, you are a man after all. You are no cripple with those fine limbs." Whether he was the son of an emperor or the child of an intrigue, was he not a child of the heavens and the earth?”

“In the ashes on the hearth Saigyo traced and retraced the word, "pity." He had yet to learn to accept life with all its good and evils, to love life in all its manifestations by becoming one with nature. And for this he had abandoned home, wife, and child in that city of conflict. He had fled to save his own life, not for any grandiose dream of redeeming mankind; neither had he taken vows with the thoughts of chanting sutras to Buddha; nor did he aspire to brocaded ranks of the high prelates. Only by surrendering to nature could he best cherish his own life, learn how man should live, and therein find peace. And if any priest accused him of taking the vows out of self-love, not to purify the world and bring salvation to men, Saigyo was ready to admit that these charges were true and that he deserved to be reviled and spat upon as a false priest. Yet, if driven to answer for himself, he was prepared to declare that he who had not learned to love his own life could not love mankind, and that what he sought now was to love that life which was his. Gifts he had none to preach salvation or the precepts of Buddha; all that he asked was to be left to exist as humbly as the butterflies and the birds.”

“How was Gengo to know, Saigyo reflected, that this unheroic existence imposed even greater torment than the icy lashings of the Nachi Falls in its thousand-foot leap? How was Gengo to realize that Saigyo had not slept a single night undisturbed since he had fled his home for the Eastern Hills, that his sleep was haunted by the cries of his beloved daughter from whom he had torn himself.Who knew that during the day, when he went about his tasks of drawing water and chopping wood as he composed verses, the sighting of the wind in the treetops of the valleys below and the pines surrounding the temple sounded to him like the mourning of his young wife, and so troubled his nights that sleep no longer visited him? Never again would Saigyo find peace. He had wrenched asunder the living boughs of the tree that was his life. Remorse and compassion for his loved ones would dog him to the end of his days.”

“Is that so? He who lives in the mountains years for the city, and the city-dweller would rather live in the mountains," the Abbot chuckled, "and nothing is ever to one's liking...”

“Here--you warriors--why this moaning and complaining? Have you no more sense than toads and vipers? Our time hasn't come. Have you no patience? Are we not the 'trodden weed' still? The time is not yet here for us to raise our heads. Must you still complain?”

“Call them robbers and cutthroats--were they not amiable enough when they had sufficient to fill their bellies? Something was out of joint in a world that drove these men to steal.”

“Fighting isn't all there is to the Art of War. The men who think that way, and are satisfied to have food to eat and a place to sleep, are mere vagabonds. A serious student is much more concerned with training his mind and disciplining his spirit than with developing martial skills.”

“You seem to be under the misconception that if you perform one brave deed, that alone makes you a samurai. Well it doesn't! You let that one act of loyalty convince you of your righteousness. The more convinced you became, the more harm you caused yourself and everyone else.”

“Diri seseorang itu adalah dasar segalanya. Setiap tindakan adalah ungkapan diri seseorang. Orang yang tidak kenal dirinya tak dapat melakukan apa pun buat orang lain.”

“Kita manusia ini semua melihat satu bulan saja, tetapi banyak jalan yang dapat kita tempuh untuk sampai ke puncak yang terdekat dengannya. Kadang-kadang kalau kita tersesat, kita memutuskan untuk mencoba jalan orang lain, tapi tujuan akhirnya menemukan penyempurnaan hidup.”

“Orang yang benar-benar berani adalah yang mencintai hidup dan mendambakannya sebagai harta kekayaan yang sekali hilang takkan dapat ditemukan kembali.”

“Kalau orang muda tidak dapat menggantungkan cita-cita besar dalam jiwanya, siapa lagi yang dapat?”

“...you're going to find people from all over the country, everyone hungry for money and position. You won't make a name for yourself just doing what the next man does. You'll have to distinguish yourself in some way.”

“Manusia ingin percaya bahwa mereka hidup dan bertindak berdasarkan kemauan mereka sendiri, namun pada kenyataannya mereka hanya dipaksa oleh keadaan.”

“Beyond the shadow of a doubt, food was more important than a woman's suffering. ”

“Lord Karasumaru considered it a grave mistake on the part of the gods tohave made a man like himself a nobleman. And, though a servant of theEmperor, he saw only two paths open to him: to live in constant misery orto spend his time carousing. The sensible choice was to rest his headon the knees of a beautiful woman, admire the pale light of the moon,view the cherry blossoms in season and die with a cup of sake in his hand. ”

“It was only leaves and branches.”

“bukan sekadar membaca, tetapi mempertemukan antara satu buku dengan yang lain, mempertemukan mereka dengan realitas lalu menemukan sintesis dan membuat tulisan kita sendiri.”