• The winter moon becomes a companion, the heart of the priest, sunk in meditation upon religion and philosophy, there in the mountain hall, is engaged in a delicate interplay and exchange with the moon; and it is this of which the poet sings.

    Yasunari Kawabata: The winter moon becomes a companion, the heart of the priest, sunk in meditation upon religion and philosophy, there in the mountain hall, is engaged in a delicate interplay and exchange with the moon; and it is this of which the poet sings.
    "Japan, the Beautiful and Myself". Yasunari Kawabata's Nobel Lecture, www.nobelprize.org. December 12, 1968.