In all things it is the beginnings and ends that are interesting. Does the love between men and women refer only to the moments when they are in each other’s arms? The man who grieves over a love affair broken off before it was fulfilled, who bewails empty vows, who spends long autumn nights alone, who lets his thoughts wander to distant skies, who yearns for the past in his dilapidated house—such a man truly knows what love means.
—Yoshida Kenko - Essays In Idleness
