In an artistic piece of sublime joy, you can sometimes discern a hint of pain. Take J.S. Bach's Air on the G string for example. The music is sweet, and yet in the midst of its rapturous melody you can certainly sense a taint of pain approaching from the midair.
Sanshiro is one of Soseki Natsume's early masterpieces. Sanshiro, a country boy, goes to Tokyo to enter the University. There he meets Mineko, a girl of beautiful enigma. Sanshiro finds that he can decipher the pain in the heart of Mineko's voluptuous existence. The pain in a sense foretells the eventual catastrophe of the love affair, but also is an essential accompaniment to anything of blissful beauty.
4 comments:
I am afraid if I can express an exact feeling in my poor English, but I'll try.
I feel a subtle strangeness around your journal today.
When I read your conversation with Mr.Shirasu in last autumn, I felt so too.
It seems you cling to the catastrophe.
I'm not sure but I dare say that I don't think the catastrophe is an essential accompaniment to anything of blissful beauty.
I think what we need is Awareness.
If there is something rude in my saying, please forgive me.
This is a very interesting comment from Masami. Sometimes I also "cling to the catastrophe", because it makes a deep impression on me. Is it actually because of awareness that pain and suffering is detected at all? I like to see myself as an optimist, but then I ask myself whether the blissful beauty should not make a bigger impression on me than the catastrophe? ...in which case I should rather call this entry in your blog "Bliss". ...which brings me back to the question whether pain is an essential accompaniment to anything of blissful beauty. In the case of Sanshiro, it is. However, should it always be? Am I not supposed to be capable of Awareness without the Pain? Do I need to be "prodded" or bullied (with pain) into Awareness?
Forgive me if I'm straying way off the point. Have to go to work now. I'll ponder this some more later.
Thank you, for great entries on your blog.
Dear Petrusa
I'm glad that you are interested in my comment.
My idea of the word awareness comes from the book "AWARENESS" written by Anthony de Mello.
So I know that it is a little bit idealistic.
Your comment has given me a new point of view in awareness.
I appreciate your comment
Sincerely yours
Masami
Petrusa and Masami, thank you for your interesting comments and discussions.
I think pain accompanies when you are venturing into a new dimension. It is not a necessary ingredient of beauty, but is certainly an important element in the cognitive process of discovering novel things, I find.
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