Lou-lan

“

“Sadamitsu is translating Goethe, and I suppose he might be able to read it. But then maybe he can't read anything except Goethe—he's been that way since he was very young. You can't be sure even about his Goethe. I know nothing of Goethe the writer, but I suppose Sadamitsu has succeeded in making his Goethe hard to live with. Goethe the poet can't have wanted as much as Sadamitsu does to have everything his way, refusing even to see his father and his brother and sister.”