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8df2c82
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Were it not for shadows, there would be no beauty.
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Jun'ichirō Tanizaki |
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26b8ef0
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There are those who say that when civilization progresses a bit further transportation facilities will move into the skies and under the ground, and that our streets will again be quiet, but I know perfectly well that when that day comes some new device for torturing the old will be invented.
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Jun'ichirō Tanizaki |
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f6263df
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If light is scarce then light is scarce; we will immerse ourselves in the darkness and there discover its own particular beauty.
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Jun'ichirō Tanizaki |
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8edc60a
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we can't make a decision between being sad for a little while and being wretched for the rest of our lives. Or rather we've made the decision and have trouble finding the courage to carry it through.
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Jun'ichirō Tanizaki |
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89722b2
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In the mansion called literature I would have the eaves deep and the walls dark, I would push back into the shadows the things that come forward too clearly, I would strip away the useless decoration. I do not ask that this be done everywhere, but perhaps we may be allowed at least one mansion where we can turn off the electric lights and see what it is like without them.
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literature
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Jun'ichirō Tanizaki |
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698dc78
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After looking at myself in the mirror, I looked at Satsuko. I could not believe that we were creatures of the same species. The uglier the face in the mirror, the more extraordinarily beautiful Satsuko seemed. If that ugly face were only uglier, I thought regretfully, Satsuko would look even more beautiful.
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Jun'ichirō Tanizaki |
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29f6ed9
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For a woman who lived in the dark it was enough if she had a faint, white face --a full body was unnecessary.
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Jun'ichirō Tanizaki |
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c5d8de5
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But does a decent man make promises just to please a woman? Isn't it more honest to refuse to?" "I don't like that sort of honesty. It's not honesty, it's lack of steadiness."
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Jun'ichirō Tanizaki |
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799e8d7
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The quality that we call beauty ... must always grow from the realities of life.
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Jun'ichirō Tanizaki |
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b090125
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It's odd, but even when I am in pain I have a sexual urge. Perhaps especially when I am in pain I have a sexual urge. Or should I say that I am more attracted, more fascinated by women who cause me pain?
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Jun'ichirō Tanizaki |
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e032fd7
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When she treads on my grave and feels as if she's trampling on that doting old man's bones, my spirit will still be alive, feeling the whole weight of her body, feeling pain, feeling the fine-grained velvety smoothness of the soles of her feet. Even after I'm dead I'll be aware of that. I can't believe I won't. In the same way, Satsuko will be aware of the presence of my spirit, joyfully enduring her weight. Perhaps she may even hear my cha..
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Jun'ichirō Tanizaki |
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08b8260
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Our cooking depends upon shadows and is inseparable from darkness
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Jun'ichirō Tanizaki |
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174a5f2
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If I've changed, I've changed." "Have you really changed, or are you only making a show?" "Making a show?" "Yes." "...I don't really know."
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Jun'ichirō Tanizaki |
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077ef7f
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There are those who hold that to quibble over matters of taste in the basic necessities of life is an extravagance
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Jun'ichirō Tanizaki |
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32907da
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When I saw the illustration a new idea came to me. Might it not be possible to have Satsuko's face and figure carved on my tombstone in the manner of such a Bodhisattva, to use her as the secret model for a Kannon or Seishi? After all, I have no religious beliefs, any sort of faith will do for me; my only conceivable divinity is Satsuko. Nothing could be better than to lie buried under her image.
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Jun'ichirō Tanizaki |
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ff3a906
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Perhaps I am already tired of life--I feel as if it makes no difference when I die. The other day at the Toranomon Hospital when they told me it might be cancer, my wife and Miss Sasaki seemed to turn pale, but I was quite calm. It was surprising that I could be calm even at such a moment. I almost felt relieved, to think that my long, long life was finally coming to an end.
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Jun'ichirō Tanizaki |
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b147804
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If indeed "elegance is frigid," it can as well be described as filthy. There is no denying, at any rate, that among the elements of the elegance in which we take such delight is a measure of the unclean, the unsanitary." --
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Jun'ichirō Tanizaki |
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0df9e81
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When I was at the University I knew a law student named Yamada Uruu. Later he worked for the Osaka Municipal Office; he's been dead for years. This man's father was an old-time lawyer, or "advocate," who in early Meiji defended the notorious murderess Takahashi Oden. It seems he often talked to his son about Oden's beauty. Apparently he would corner him and go on and on about her, as if deeply moved. "You might call her alluring, or bewitch..
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Jun'ichirō Tanizaki |
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ef7ad84
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The quality that we call beauty, however, must always grow from the realities of life, and our ancestors, forced to live in dark rooms, presently came to discover beauty in shadows, ultimately to guide shadows towards beauty's ends.
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Jun'ichirō Tanizaki |
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214f0a5
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I wouldn't mind being injured if that would bring Satsuko pleasure, and a mortal injury would be all the better. Yet to think of being trampled to death, not by her but by her dog...
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Jun'ichirō Tanizaki |
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f05e906
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Western clothes were intended for healthy, robust men: to anyone in a weakened condition they were quite insupportable. Around the waist, over the shoulders, under the arms, around the neck - every part of the body was pressed and squeezed by clasps and buttons and rubber and leather, layer over layer, as if you were strapped to a cross. And of course you had to put on stockings before the shoes, stretching them carefully up on your legs by..
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Jun'ichirō Tanizaki |
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31c9d4c
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For the beauty of the alcove is not the work of some clever device. An empty space is marked off with plain wood and plain walls, so that the light drawn into it forms dim shadows within emptiness. There is nothing more. And yet, when we gaze into the darkness that gathers behind the crossbeam, around the flower vase, beneath the shelves, though we know perfectly well it is mere shadow, we are overcome with the feeling that in this small co..
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Jun'ichirō Tanizaki |
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32ef31b
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En aquel momento tenia la sensacion de haber accedido bruscamente a otro mundo, habia ascendido a una altura vertiginosa, al cenit del extasis. Aquello era la realidad, y el pasado una mera ilusion. Estabamos solos, abrazados... Tal vez lo que estaba haciendo acabaria conmigo, pero esos momentos durarian eternamente.
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Jun'ichirō Tanizaki |
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9256007
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Znaia, chto ia fetishist zhenskikh nozhek, znaia, chto eio nogi divno krasivy (ne poverish', chto oni prinadlezhat sorokapiatiletnei zhenshchine), net, imenno poetomu ona staraetsia, chtoby ia videl ikh kak mozhno rezhe. Dazhe v seredine leta, v samuiu zharu, ona ne snimaet noskov. Kogda ia umoliaiu pozvolit' mne potselovat' stupni eio nog, ona ne zhelaet i slushat', govoria: "Kakaia pakost'!", ili: "Ne smei ko mne prikasat'sia!"
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Jun'ichirō Tanizaki |
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5a2ce85
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People called Mother a beauty, when she was young. I remember her very well in those days--until I was fourteen or fifteen she was as beautiful as ever. When I compare that memory of her with Satsuko, the contrast is really striking. Satsuko is also called a beauty. That was the main reason why Jokichi married her. But between these two beauties, between the 1890's and now, what a change has taken place in the physical appearance of the Jap..
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japanese-literature
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Jun'ichirō Tanizaki |
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1b64e8a
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The sun never knew how wonderful it was," the architect Louis Kahn said, "until it fell on the wall of a building,"
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Jun'ichirō Tanizaki |
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6a59408
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Si dice che un amore eccessivo susciti un odio cento volte piu grande.
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Jun'ichirō Tanizaki |
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086a576
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Children retain a great deal, and when they grow up they start going over things and rejudging them from a grownup's point of view. This must have been this way, and that was that way, they say. That's why you have to be careful with children--some day they grow up.
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Jun'ichirō Tanizaki |
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6892db7
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But when Kaname asked: "Would you like to separate, then?" Misako answered: "Would you?" They knew that divorce was the solution, and yet neither had the courage to propose it, each was left face to face with his own weakness."
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Jun'ichirō Tanizaki |
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f4903de
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Every time I am shown to an old, dimly lit, and, I would add, impeccably clean toilet in a Nara or Kyoto temple, I am impressed with the singular virtues of Japanese architecture. The parlor may have its charms, but the Japanese toilet truly is a place of spiritual repose. It always stands apart from the main building, at the end of a corridor, in a grove fragrant with leaves and moss. No words can describe that sensation as one sits in the..
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Jun'ichirō Tanizaki |
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85505fd
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Teinosuke preferred not to be too deeply involved in domestic problems, and particularly with regard to Etsuko's upbringing he was of the view that matters might best be left to his wife. Lately, however, with the outbreak of the China Incident, he had become conscious of the need to train strong, reliant women, women able to support the man behind the gun.
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Jun'ichirō Tanizaki |
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6a93157
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El muchacho le explico, como pronunciando un sermon, que el mundo de los hombres era vil y estaba lleno de mentiras. En el, solo el arte conducia a la vida verdadera y eterna, y el mismo era grande porque sabia lo que se encontraba mas alla de las puertas del arte. La muchacha no podia dudar de la nobleza de sus palabras.
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life
love
philosophy
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Jun'ichirō Tanizaki |
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cdd3e43
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You are being very demanding indeed. Where, I wonder, will we find the woman to satisfy you You really should have stayed single--all woman-worshippers should be single. They never find the woman who answers all the requirements.
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Jun'ichirō Tanizaki |
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7de5b8f
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The evils of dancing? Perhaps there are some, but nothing is without its evils. In my case, anyway, it's entirely wholesome, because I go with my family--wife, sister, and daughter. It's preposterous for men who spend their time in teahouses to say that dancing is unwholesome. Dancing makes a person feel young, cheerful, and lively, which alone is enough to make it far better than a teahouse party. Besides, it's economical. Young and old al..
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Jun'ichirō Tanizaki |
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a65ca97
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Pero eso que generalmente se llama bello no es mas que una sublimacion de las realidades de la vida, y asi fue como nuestros antepasados, obligados a residir, lo quisieran o no, en viviendas oscuras, descubrieron un dia lo bello en el seno de la sombra y no tardaron en utilizar la sombra para obtener efectos esteticos. El elogio de la sombra
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Jun'ichirō Tanizaki |
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48b458f
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Quiero que ella me vuelva loco de celos. Deseo que me haga sospechar que ha ido demasiado lejos. Quiero que haga eso.
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Jun'ichirō Tanizaki |
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092e8af
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Me gusta ver como se esfuerza por mantenerse sobria y palida y por parecer fria. En esas ocasiones hay en ella algo tan seductor que desafia la descripcion.
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Jun'ichirō Tanizaki |
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d8c8dfa
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When he heard people with no knowledge of a cat's character saying that cats were not as loving as dogs, that they were cold and selfish, he always thought to himself how impossible it was to understand the charm and lovableness of a cat if one had not, like him, spent many years living alone with one. The reason was that all cats are to some extent shy creatures: they won't show affection or seek it from their owners in front of a third pe..
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felines
feline
cats
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Jun'ichirō Tanizaki |
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bedbc84
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Cuanto mas le odiaba, tanto mas intentaba amarle, y lo conseguia. Estimulada por el apetito sexual, no podia hacer otra cosa.
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Jun'ichirō Tanizaki |
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10d9f9e
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Era mortificante pensar que otro hombre habia descubierto ese exotico aspecto de su belleza que a mi se me habia pasado por alto. Supongo que los maridos no son tan observadores, porque miran a sus esposas de una manera invariable.
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Jun'ichirō Tanizaki |
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edf6aeb
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Un genio conversa con otro genio cara a cara, lo que no solo supone una alegria reciproca, sino tambien una dicha para el universo entero. Esa alegria existe y el universo existe tambien. El dia que los genios no se reconozcan unos a otros, el mundo se oscurecera y la Tierra dejara de dar vueltas sobre su eje
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philosophy
knolwedge
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Jun'ichirō Tanizaki |
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c67057c
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When I compared them to Naomi, I sensed an unmistakable difference in refinement between those who are born to the higher classes of society and those who aren't... there's no concealing bad birth and breeding.
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Jun'ichirō Tanizaki |
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f069635
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My heart was full of the loneliness that follows merriment.
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Jun'ichirō Tanizaki |
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74ab393
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Ne znaiu, kak drugie zhenshchiny, a moia zhena tak sotvorena, chto dazhe esli ona zanimalas' etim dnem i prodolzhila noch'iu, i tak den' za dnem, ei vse budet malo. Posle vstrechi s liubovnikom prodelat' to zhe samoe s nenavistnym muzhem dolzhno byt' nevynosimoi pytkoi, no ona - iskliuchenie. Dazhe, esli ia ei protiven, eio plot' ne mozhet mne otkazat'. Kak by ni pytalas' ona menia otvergnut', vozhdelenie voz'met verkh, i ona podchinitsia e..
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Jun'ichirō Tanizaki |