Like a child who starts to be happy

The speaker then turns to himself. His childhood, he says, was 'a forgotten boredom': nothing in it seems worth remembering.

Yet the coming of spring makes him feel like a child who walks into a room just as the grown-ups are making up after a quarrel.

The child understands nothing of what has happened, except the strange, relieved laughter of the adults. And so the child, too, begins to feel happy, without quite knowing why.

In the same way, the speaker does not fully understand why the signs of spring make him glad; he simply starts to be happy.

The chapter also introduces the haiku, a short Japanese form of poem. It has three lines, usually of seventeen syllables in all, and expresses one thought or image. The book gives examples: 'Cobra', 'Night' and 'Alone'.