“Secrets are enjoyable, and whether they are worries or joys, we paint them all with the same color.”
- January 14, 1925 – November 25, 1970
- Born in Japan
- Novelist, playwright, critic, political activist
Japanese
「秘密というものはたのしいもので、悩みであろうが喜びであろうが、同じ色に塗りたくってしまいます。」
English
“Secrets are enjoyable, and whether they are worries or joys, we paint them all with the same color.”
Explanation
In this quote, Mishima explores the nature of secrets and how they shape human experience. He suggests that secrets, regardless of their emotional content—whether worries or joys—are often treated the same way in the mind. The metaphor of painting secrets with the same color implies that emotions tied to secrets are not distinct or separate; they are all imbued with a sense of mystery and personal significance, and in that sense, they are uniform in their effect on the person who holds them. Whether a secret is born from anxiety or happiness, it retains a certain intrigue and private intensity that makes it precious and compelling.
Mishima’s reflection also touches on the complexity of human emotions and the way in which people tend to internalize and compartmentalize their feelings. In keeping a secret, whether painful or pleasurable, one may experience a kind of ambivalence, where the nature of the emotion becomes obscured by the act of concealment itself. The “color” of the secret represents the way emotions are filtered through the lens of secrecy, where the emotional weight is distilled into something that is hard to categorize or fully understand.
In a modern context, Mishima’s quote can be seen as a reflection on how we deal with emotions in the age of privacy and social media. Secrets are often kept not just out of necessity, but also because they provide a sense of control or ownership over our personal experiences. In today’s world, where emotional transparency is often expected, people may still choose to filter or compartmentalize their experiences, keeping them hidden behind a veneer of privacy. Mishima’s words remind us that while secrets can be enigmatic and interesting, they also complicate the emotional landscape, blurring the line between joy and sorrow, and offering a unique, internalized form of experience that shapes our lives in unexpected ways.
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