... because the wind cannot read

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... because the wind cannot read (in the original The Wind Cannot Read ) was Richard Mason's first narrative work. The English novelist, born in Hale in the English county of Cheshire in 1919 , was a journalist until the beginning of the Second World War . He wrote the novel in a few spring months between February and May in the war year 1944 while participating in the Burma campaign , stationed with the British Air Force. Following the troops, the manuscript traveled with him from Imphal to Rangoon on the marches or in the jeep and was only published after the defeat of the Japanese, his further service in Malaya and Sumatra , in 1946 after his discharge from the army. The story of the love of the flight officer Michael Quinn for the young Japanese Hanako made him world famous overnight.

The title refers to the Japanese poem:

「こ の 花 は 固 く「 折 る な！ 」と 言 う た で
札 も 読 め ぬ 風 に に は 是非 も な し」

"Kono hana wa kataku 'Oruna!" to iutade
Fuda mo yomenu kaze niwa zehi mo nashi "

“Even if the words are written:
'Don't pick the flowers! Are living beings! '
The signs can do nothing against the wind,
because the wind cannot read. "

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The novel is set in Burma and India. During an apprenticeship in India, the officer falls in love with the young Japanese teacher. Against the backdrop of the Indian landscape, the people and the Himalayas, the love between the two finds a deep fulfillment. Similar to the fictional character Cat in Ernest Hemingway's famous novel In Another Land , however, the lovers are separated by death.

The novel was awarded the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize in 1948 .

"... because the wind can't read" was filmed in 1958. Directed by Ralph Thomas , the main actors were Dirk Bogarde and Yoko Tani .

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