The Wind Has Risen on Requiem: “A small parcel had arrived: Rilke's Requiem (Chinkon-ka), ordered long ago, forwarded from place to place with two or three other books. That night, by the fireplace, listening now and then to the wind, I began to read Rilke's Requiem. [auto-translated]”
The Beautiful Village on The Princess of Clèves: “On my desk lies Madame de La Fayette's The Princess of Clèves, left open at a half-read page. I am reading this old French novel with real feeling for the first time, and thanks to it I feel somewhat rescued from my oddly tense state of mind these days. [auto-translated]”
The Beautiful Village on Count d'Orgel's Ball: “Radiguet's Count d'Orgel's Ball, which I made you read a couple of years ago, is even said to have taken this novel as its model, so it resembles it greatly. [auto-translated]”
The Beautiful Village on Adolphe: “The example of Adolphe came to mind. I wanted to raise my own small affair to the level of a work like that, because Adolphe's fate, that of a weak yet egoistic man who made himself and others unhappy, seemed just like my own. [auto-translated]”
The Beautiful Village on Faust, Part Two: Epigraph, from Faust, Part Two: the pulse of life beats anew and brisk, as if to greet the gentle twilight of the heavens. You, world below, did not fail in your duty last night, and this morning, your weariness healed, you breathe beneath my feet. [auto-translated]