KEIKO KOMA net

3 Oct. 2011

Aroma of literature

The ferocious typhoon that was hitting here now seemed to teach me that human beings should realize the arrival of a new era and live a new life unified with nature. While I was cleaning a letter box in my desk, a postcard of Russia caught my attention as it had a nostalgic aroma that I had felt when I visited St. Petersburg for the first time and stepped down on the ground from an airplane. The way from the airport to my hotel looked familiar to me and was already in my memory, to my wonder when I heard a voice from within my mind that we should make a turn next, in reality our car did so though this was indeed my first time to be there. My soul trembled at everything I saw. In my room at the hotel, I was surrounded by the warmth of wooden furniture and my heart was nursed. The wooden table and chairs generated an aroma of literature. A painting on the wall drew spring in Russia with a field covered with flowers that expressed the joy of Russian people who had long waited for the arrival of spring and melting of snow after a long severe winter. I was greatly moved and shed tears. The tables, furniture and bags I saw at the Dostoevsky museum were also full of an aroma of literature. Then I when I went back to Japan, I changed the decoration of my room to one that was full of an aroma of literature that excited my heart and made realize the joy of being alive. While Mr. Idaki Shin always taught me how one should keep on making investigations, I was glad as I was realizing a way of life that was full of new discoveries and encounters with the truth. This was a human life that I had wished to be provided with since childhood. As the autumn was deepening day by day, I could hear the sound of autumn and poems were coming up. In such a moment I felt deeply grateful to my life.