‘Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters’

三島由紀夫は私の神です。強さと名誉、マスター….

“Somewhere there must be a higher principle which reconciles art and action. That principle, it occurred to me, was death.

…

The vast upper atmosphere, where there is no oxygen…is surrounded with death. To survive in this atmosphere, man, like an actor, must wear a mask.

…

In this stillness was a beauty beyond words. No more body or spirit, pen or sword…male or female…

Then I saw a giant circle coiled around the Earth.

A ring that resolved all contradictions, a ring vaster than death…more fragrant than any scent I have ever known.

Here was the moment I had always been seeking.

The instant the blade tore open his flesh…the bright disk of the sun soared up behind his eyelids and exploded…lighting the sky for an instant.”