Storytime: It's my birthday today. 😄, I'm 27. Though older, I

prefer the number to 26 and so far it is a wonderful day. 😉, I read Tanizaki's A Portrait of Shunkin today and want to share a passage from it for today's post. Here it is:

Excerpt from A Portrait of Shunkin by Jun'ichirō Tanizaki.

[Shunkin speaking to her pupils of her nightingale, Tenko the Second.]

“Listen to Tenko, all of you! It was only an ordinary fledgling at first, but you can see what long training has done for it. No wild nightingale has a voice as beautiful as that. Some people may say that it is merely an artificial beauty; nothing is more lovely, they will tell you, than the song of the wild nightingale bursting suddenly out of the mist over a stream, as you wander through deep valleys looking for the flowers of spring. I cannot agree with them. It is only the time and place that make the call of the wild nightingale so moving; if you stop to listen, you realize that its voice is far from beautiful. But when you hear a bird as accomplished as Tenko, on the other hand, you are reminded of the tranquil charm of a secluded ravine — a rushing stream murmurs to you, clouds of cherry blossoms float up before your eyes. Blossoms and mist alike are within that song, and we forget that we are still in the dusty city. This is where art rivals nature. And here too is the secret of music.”