Dear Friends,—I am a little disappointed in being able to send you to-day only “Kokoro” and “Gleanings in Buddha-Fields”—these being the only books of mine, not in your possession, that I could lay hands on. However, they are the best of the earlier lot; and I imagine that you will be interested especially in the latter. Japan is changing so quickly that already some of the essays in “Kokoro”—such as the “Genius of Japanese Civilization”—have become out-of-date. By the way, have you seen Bellesort’s “La Société Japonaise?”—a wonderful book, considering that its author passed only about six months in Japan!
A few days ago I had the delightful surprise of your album-gift: I have lived in Finland! It is very strange that some of the pictures are exactly what I dreamed of—after reading the “Kalewala.” In fact, the book illustrates the “Kalewala” for me: even the weird expression in the eyes of the old Kantele-singers seems to me familiar. Of course, the views of city streets and splendid buildings were all surprises and revelations; but the hills and woods and lakes looked like the Finland of my reveries. Of all the views, that of Tmatia seemed to me most like the scenery of the Runoia: there was something in it of déjà vu, most ghostly, that gave me particular delight. My affectionate thanks to you both. I shall ever treasure the book and remember the kind givers.
Lafcadio Hearn.
TO MRS. HIRN
Tōkyō, June, 1902.
Dear Mrs. Hirn,—I have received the copy of Euterpe, so kindly sent me, containing your translation,—which gave me much pleasure.
What a nice little paper Euterpe is! Long ago we used to have good papers like that—real literary papers, in nearly the same format—in America. Now, alas! they have become impossible. The taste for good literature in America is practically dead: vulgar fiction has killed the higher fiction; “sensationalism” and blatant cheap journalism have murdered the magazines; and poetry is silent. I wish there could be another paper in America like Euterpe....
I have been wondering, in reading your translation, whether there is no better word for the English “ghostly” than mystika—surely, they are not alike in meaning. The old English name for a priest, you know, is “a ghostly father.” And I am wondering whether “ewigt” really has the sense of “infinitely.” The Buddhist thought is that the innermost eternal life in each of us becomes “infinite” by union with the One, when the shell of Karma is broken. Individuality and personality exist only as passing phenomena: the Reality is One and infinite.
Please pardon these little observations, which are not intended as criticisms, but only as suggestions.
Believe me ever most sincerely yours,