This world of dew—and yet

The expression This world of dew—and yet is a two-line verse fragment attributed to Issa. Set after the railway’s destruction and the image of imperial dreams and dead men reduced to long grass, it gives the book a brief, unresolved counterpoint: the world is fleeting, and yet the thought does not end there.

Wording and Source

The fragment first names a world of dew, then repeats and qualifies that image: “This world of dew” is followed by “is only a world of dew—and yet.” The repetition makes transience explicit; the closing “and yet” interrupts the finality of “only” without completing the thought. The text places Issa’s name immediately after the lines.

Placement in the Narrative

The verse follows a passage declaring that the railway was broken, its labor and imperial ambition had come to nothing, and nothing remained of it but grass across the jungle. It therefore arrives not as an account of another event but as a pause after an image of ruin. The next passage begins a new chapter in Tokyo in the winter of 1946, moving from the railway’s reclaimed landscape to a city still marked by destruction.

Meaning and Ambiguity

The fragment holds two movements together: the declaration that existence is temporary and a hesitation that refuses to let that declaration become the whole of its meaning. The text does not specify what the final “and yet” affirms. Its force lies in leaving that possibility open, rather than turning loss into a settled lesson or offering certainty about what survives.