So here are some examples to suggest why I love Junchiro Tanizakis' works so much:

"Today when the summer thrush
Came to sing at Heron's Nest
I crossed the Bridge of Dreams."
- from The Bridge of Dreams

"The cold winter rains and the snow
Only fall now and then—
But because of you, my tears
Are falling constantly."
- from A Blind Man's Tale

"Blown by the wind
The smoke from Fuji disappears,
Who knows where?
So to my thoughts."
-from Childhood Years

"Every worm to his taste;
Some prefer to eat nettles."
-from Some Prefer Nettles

These are all translations from the Japanese. I feel Howard Hibbet must have gotten it right.

And here is one that has stuck with me for at least 30 years since I read this the first time:


"The children of these disillusioned colored pioneers inherited the total lot of their parents--the disappointments, the anger. To add to their misery, they had little hope of deliverance. For where does one run to when he's already in the promised land?"
- from Manchild in the Promised Land by Claude Brown