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The Soul of the Far East-Part12_Percival Lowell(1855-1916)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

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A branch just breaking into bloom seen against the sunrise sky, or a

bough bending its blossoms to the bosom of a stream, is subject



enough for their greatest masters, who thus wed, as it were,

two arts in one,--the spirit of poesy with pictorial form.



This plum-tree is but a blossom. Precocious harbinger of a host

of flowers, its gay heralding over, it vanishes not to be recalled,



for it bears no edible fruit.

The next event in the series might fairly be called phenomenal.



Early in April takes place what is perhaps as superb a sight as

anything in this world, the blossoming of the cherry-trees. Indeed,



it is not easy to do the thing justice in description. If the plum

invited admiration, the cherry commands it; for to see the sakura in



flower for the first time is to experience a new sensation.

Familiar as a man may be with cherryblossoms at home, the sight



there bursts upon him with the dazzling effect of a revelation.

Such is the profusion of flowers that the tree seems to have turned



into a living mass of rosy light. No leaves break the brilliance.

The snowy-pink petals drape the branches entirely, yet so



delicately, one deems it all a veil donned for the tree's nuptials

with the spring. For nothing could more completely personify the



spirit of the spring-time. You can almost fancy it some dryad

decked for her bridal, in maidenly day-dreaming too lovely to last.



For like the plum the cherry fails in its fruit to fulfil the

promise of its flower.



It would be strange indeed if so much beauty received no recognition,

but it is even more strange that recognition should be so complete



and so universal as it is. Appreciation is not confined to the

cultivated few; it is shown quite as enthusiastically by the masses.



The popularity of the plants is all-embracing. The common people

are as sensitive to their beauty as are the upper classes. Private



gratification, roseate as it is, pales beside the public delight.

Indeed, not content with what revelation Nature makes of herself of



her own accord, man has multiplied her manifestations. Spots

suitable to their growth have been peopled by him with trees.



Sometimes they stand in groups like star-clusters, as in Oji,

crowning a hill; sometimes, as at Mukojima, they line an avenue for



miles, dividing the blue river on the one hand from the blue-green

rice-fields on the other,--a floral milky way of light. But



wherever the trees may be, there at their flowering season are to be

found throngs of admirers. For in crowds people go out to see the



sight, multitudes streaming incessantly to and fro beneath their

blossoms as the time of day determines the turn of the human tide.



To the Occidental stranger such a gathering suggests some social

loadstone; but none exists. In the cherry-trees alone lies the



attraction.

For one week out of the fifty-two the cherry-tree stands thus



glorified, a vision of beauty prolonged somewhat by the want of

synchronousness of the different kinds. Then the petals fall.



What was a nuptial veil becomes a winding-sheet, covering the sod as

with winter's winding-sheet of snow, destined itself to disappear,



and the tree is nothing but a common cherry-tree once more.

But flowers are by no means over because the cherryblossoms are



past. A brief space, and the same crowds that flocked to the cherry

turn to the wistaria. Gardens are devoted to the plants, and the



populace greatly given to the gardens. There they go to sit and

gaze at the grape-like clusters of pale purple flowers that hang



more than a cubit long over the wooden trellis, and grow daily down

toward their own reflections in the pond beneath, vying with one



another in Narcissus-like endeavor. And the people, as they sip

their tea on the veranda opposite, behold a doubled delight, the



flower itself and its mirrored image stretching to kiss.

After the wistaria comes the tree-peony, and then the iris, with its



trefoil flowers broader than a man may span, and at all colors under




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