Japanese is a very expressive language, containing many words without direct English translations. A famous example, most likely popularised by Tumblr, is komorebi (sunlight filtering through trees). “Kokoro” is another word that is hard to translate:

Kokoro, the novel’s title, is a complex and important word that can perhaps best be explained as “the thinking and feeling heart,” as distinguished from the workings of the pure intellect, devoid of human feeling.

The novel, a classic in Japan, presents the relationship between a young man and Sensei. However, underlying the relatively simple plot is the strong symbolism of the fading Meiji era and the subsequent internationalisation of Japan (a recurring theme in much of 20th-century Japanese literature). While this shift was viewed positively by many, it left the older generation grappling with feelings of guilt, embodied in the “thinking and feeling heart” that Kokoro captures so well. But even without this deeper historical context, Kokoro stands as a powerful and tragic novel that deepened my appreciation of Japanese culture.

Kokoro, the novel’s title, is a complex and important word that can perhaps best be explained as “the thinking and feeling heart,” as distinguished from the workings of the pure intellect, devoid of human feeling.

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“I finally couldn’t stand it anymore and said to him, ‘If there’s any fault in me, then please tell me honestly. If I can correct it, I will.’ And he replied, ‘You don’t have any fault. The fault is in me.’ When I heard that, it made me unbearably sad. It made me cry. And I longed more than ever to know how I might be to blame.”

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Woman that she was, my mother’s reasoning grew rather incoherent at such times, though when it came to talking, she could easily outdo my father and me combined.

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a commonplace idea stated with passionate conviction carries more living truth than some novel observation expressed with cool indifference.

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In my heart, though, I was saddened that the person I loved and trusted most in the world could not understand me. But it’s within your power to help her understand, I thought, and yet you’re too cowardly to do so, and I grew still sadder.

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