Snow Country

Author: Yasunari Kawabata

It was a complete waste of effort. For some reason Shimamura wanted to emphasize this point. But when he was drawn to her at that moment, he felt a quietness, like the sound of rain falling upon him. He was well aware that this was not a waste of effort for her, but somehow the ultimate conviction she had taken was a distillation and purification of her soul.
Her talk of novels seemed unrelated to "literature" in the usual sense of the word. The only ties she had with the people of this village came from exchanging women's magazines, and after that, she continued to read them alone. She was completely indiscriminate and had little understanding of literature, borrowing even novels and magazines she found lying in the guest rooms of the hotel. The names of some of the new novelists she encountered meant nothing to Shimamura. Her talk was as if she were speaking of distant foreign literature. There was something of loneliness, a sad feeling in her talk that suggested more a beggar who had lost all desire.