the poetry of two lovers

i chanced upon this enigmatic photo blog/website called L.T.E.D a few years ago. it seems to be some sort of visual diary, except that every photograph in the website comes coupled with a few lines of words, always written in japanese.


"そっと　手を伸ばすだけでいい

まずはそっと　手を伸ばすことから"

although i cannot read japanese, visiting their website was always somewhat emotional for me, because i feel like i have wandered into a dialogue between two lovers. i imagine the two of them exchanging an image and a poem every other day, or sometimes once in a few weeks. perhaps, i imagine, they don't even live in the same country, and this is their only form of communication.

there was once when i tried to use one of those free translating websites to figure out what the japanese words meant, but of course i soon realized that there was no point in doing that, because the beauty of the language would still be lost on me.


"何も感じなくなるよりも　ずっといい

だいじょうぶ
変わらずに変わってゆくということは

きっとそういうことだから"

according to the website, the text is by midori, while the photographs are by yamasaki, who has a personal website filled with absolutely stunning black & white photographs that i shall introduce to you in awhile.

in the meantime, even if you can't understand japanese, please visit their website and participate in the poignant poetry of it all.