The Old Man and the Sakura
Sakura always remember a time to bloom. Today, we kicked off fiscal 2022 with them and Kyoto is in the best time to enjoy Somei Yoshinos and Japanese people remember a sentence in an old Chines poem: “年年歳歳花相似 歳歳年年人不同.”
It means we can see the same (kind of) flowers every single spring but the persons see them are not the same (in many ways).
Every spring I see them in full-bloom, the sentence always reminds me of “the old man.”
He was a man of in his 70’s or maybe 80’s. I have no idea who he was. We both knew the best time to enjoy Sakuras at some place with no fail.
He usually picked up well-bloomed Sakura trees and take a pass case out of his pocket and paused his hand hesitantly in front of each trees he choose.
In side of the pass case, there was a photograph of an old lady. My instinct told me who she was and something prevented her from visiting there. I was sure he wanted her to see the Sakuras through the photo.
Hagakure, a book tells us what Samurai is properly, says we shouldn’t reveal our love. I suppose he was a man believes in the old value but he couldn’t help to show his own.
I haven’t seen him for three years but I always remember him in the midst of Sakura.合掌
