Closing Address for IMS10

My dear colleagues and friends, I am here again to give the closing address for the IMS10. I feel as if I were in a dream; four days have passed in a twinkling of an eye, compared to the four years spent on preparation for IMS10. I feel so sad, as if our own version of the Olympic Games were just about to close.

Yet once more, on behalf of the Organizing Committee, I would like to express my sincere gratitude for your visit in spite of the many difficulties. I am so sorry about the heat in adding to the list of trials I mentioned in my opening address. The awful heat this week might be from your passion for Milton. Usually it should have been much cooler in the fourth week of August.

However, we have had a superb programme, and I think all of us agree that it is rare to be able to enjoy and learn from so many fine scholars in such a concentrated amount of time. We were able to meet again, face to face, those of us who are long-standing colleagues and friends, and were also able to begin new friendships, as together we have enjoyed gaining new professional and personal insights during this symposium.

I have heard a great many favorable responses to the cultural events: the Noh play Samson on Tuesday and the Concert “Milton and Music” last night. The artists themselves were greatly pleased to have had the opportunity to perform for such a distinguished congress of international scholars, so these performances will live on also in their memory as well as ours. I am very much delighted to hear from so many of you that you enjoyed these international events and also the Japanese way of hospitality symbolized by the furoshiki. I would like you to take back happy memories of IMS10 and of Tokyo in your furoshiki.

From the bottom of my heart, I say, “Thank you all,” and, “Thank you, John.”