Aoi Hitorigoto n.54 - TRANSLATION-
Aoi Hitorigoto #54
-Feeling-
By Kato Shigeaki
Don't think, feel. It's the well famous wise saying by Bruce Lee. Don't think, feel. It may be wise but still it's a extremely simple phrase, even if it wasn't Bruce Lee somebody else would have said that sooner or later. However, it's a very easy thing to say. I guess that if it became a famous saying passed down from the past it's because of its essence, which is way more deep than the mere words that shape it.
I'm a big armchair theorist. I always tend to think about things logically. For example, I'm the type of person who watches movies and says lots of "Given the setting of the movie, isn't that thing out of place?" or "No way, in reality it wouldn't be that applauded! I mean, the whole story is impossible!!". I've always been like this, my dad is the same watching TV so maybe it's something hereditary. This is really important. If the things are barely logical everything will end to crumble down. This doesn't mean that works with a perfect logic are always good though. With a good foundation of logic then all the other things will be the ones deciding the quality of a work. Not only movies, books, stages and lives are all the same.
But always pursuing the logic often I end up to be bound hand and foot by that. Talking about the worldwide best-seller "Norwegian Woods" by Murakami Haruki - There are no doubts that it is a wonderful masterpiece - I had many parts that I didn't understand so I complained with my friends. Everybody was like "This part is really good, don't you think?" or "That metaphor sent me crazy!" but still I thought the book lacked of sense of unity and conviction. That time a friend told me: "Shige you should be more sensitive. Only if you try to feel more you can enter into the atmosphere of the book. Its beauty lies there".
Don't think, feel. I finally realized. I didn't feel it at all, I just cared about the style and the development of the story. Since then my aim became "Don't think, feel". Keeping this in mind I tried again to read another best-seller "Catcher in the rye" by Salinger, translated by Murakami. It became my lifetime favourite novel.
The practice of "Don't think, feel" is something I'm trying to use at work too. When this essay will be published it will be already over, but right now I'm trying to put the feelings first during NEWS lives. I think that enjoying them simply following my sixth sense is the best thing I can do. If I want to sing I should sing, if I want to dance I should do it. It's not about what I want to show to people and what I don't want to show, the most important thing is enjoying the thing by myself first. Even if I may not seem really cool I just want to have fun, really.
Zenkai no mune, zenkai no koe, zenkai no sude de
kanjiru koto dake ga subete. Kanjita koto ga subete.
Ikitete yokatta, ikitete yokatta.
With a completely open heart, full voice, bare-handed
what I feel is everything. What I felt is everything.
I'm happy to be alive, I'm happy to be alive.
Flowers Companyz - Shinya Kousoku
Now I feel refreshed. I feel like when you are about to finish Mario's game and you know that the next stage is the one where you have to defeat the Boss. You can clearly feel it. It's a whole body & mind thing.
So please, try to "feel" this essay without thinking. I think it contains some mistakes too. Forgive me if it's a little rough. Sometimes I got over excited by the subject but if you try to feel me I think it'll be ok the same.
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As always I totally agree with Shige, I think that "Don't think, feel" advice is something we all should try in our lives...though I think it's not as easy as it may seems in words :P
Shige destroyed one of my favourite books...DISAPPOINT...No, really, I think that his critics were right because Murakami's works are not logical at all and always lack a sense of unity, I can understand how he felt reading the book and trying to figure it out in a logical way, of course he got disappointed with it ^^ As his friend said not all works can be judged only by that point of view, feeling is important too.
I read "Catcher in the rye" many years ago and I loved it, I think I will read it again though :P *biased*
Also adding the video of the song he quoted...I freakin' love it and I'm listening non-stop to it since yesterday *O*
Shige has really good tastes (imho at least)
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