物 の 哀 れ

mono no aware

"the pathos of things"

There are things easily said in one language that may take a page to say in another. Winter turns to spring, and there is the symbolism of hope, of renewal, of life, of fertility, of continuation.

物 の 哀 れ is Japanese, and sounds like , mono no aware and means "the pathos of things"… The Japanese talk about this at hanami, when they go to the best place to see the sakura, the cherry blossoms.

Cherry blossoms fall from their delicate cling to the center of the blossom, the part that is clinging to the branch, that is the dark and twisting lifeline to the blossoms. Then for some reason, at some time, they fall, like snowflakes, or like time, they fall at 5 cm / sec. … and Japanese go to places where there are hundreds or even thousands of cherry trees loaded with blossoms, and they have a festival all about it, hanami, going to look at the blossoms.

Why talk about mono no aware at hanami? Hanami is looking at the blossoms, but also eating some green tea ice cream and throwing back a few cups of sake, or just a normal party with chips and Coke, and it’s a party; but mono no aware is quite philosophical, even bearing a tinge of Zen sadness if you think about it. The pathos of things, meaning the suffering of things, or more for us the empathy for things, is really a rumination on the transitoriness of things, such as cherry blossoms, that last but a few days. As St James says, “For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, then vanisheth away. Like the cherry blossoms, we will live for a little time on this earth, and then drop. Or like the cherry blossoms, a lifelong friendship may just cease clinging to the branch, and fall. Or a passion held between two hearts, like the sakura, will fall, at 5 cm / sec and be gone. Gone.

The only thing that can capture the blossom forever is art.