May flowers: Anemone

Posted by Japanalia (Yokohama, Japan) on 12 May 2008 in Plant & Nature and Portfolio.

"Their colors are bright but still they fall:
who lasts forever in our world?
Today I cross the far peak of Transience:
no more shallow dreams, no drunkenness"

(The poet is anonymous. Known as the Iroha uta, this is a four line poem in imayoo folksong style, with each line of twelve syllables. It is said to be a Japanized version of a gatha, or four line poem, from the Nirvana Sutra: "All things are transient/ Everything that lives will die/ When this cycle stops/ there is Nirvana and joy.")

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