桜は咲いたらすぐ落ちます ※ How Quickly the Blossoms Flower and Fall

この頃、初めて日本の桜を経験しています。桜の少しピンクで白い花がほとんどどこでも見えます。公園にも歩道にも学校にも、どこにも咲いています。冬の時には、たくさんの所景色は灰色がたくさんあって、ちょっと暗いと思いました。でも、桜が咲いたおかげでその所も綺麗になってきました。繊細で、揺れている花の美しさはみんなに愛されています。先日、僕が鶴舞公園で歩いた時に、日本人と様々な国の人たちは桜の木の下で一緒に景色を見ながら楽しそうにピクニックをしていました。その仲間意識の人々をみて、心に嬉しかったです。確かに春が来ましたね。
咲いている木の下に入ると、何も考えられないほど美しいです。晴れの日にも雨の日にも素晴らしいです。でも、しばらくすると、雪みたいに涼しい風で地面に落ちます。桜が普通の花と違って、神聖な雰囲気があるのではないかと思います。静かに咲いて、すぐ落ちますから見るとちょっと嬉しくて、切ない気持ちがあります。この考えは間違えているかもしれませんが、桜の神聖な雰囲気の理由が分かったと思います。
人生の事も、少し桜の咲くことみたいと考えています。色々な経験が始まって、早すぎて終わります。経験だけじゃなくて、子供の頃や学生の頃や誰かの親しい人と過ごす時間などがすぐ始まって、桜の花のように地面に落ちて、自然になくなります。残念ながら何も出来ず、ただ生活を続けなければいけません。でも、その大事な経験と人をいつまでも思い出のうちに入れておくといいです。将来に静かの時に思い出して、もう一度頭の中でその大事なことに戻れるかもしれません。桜も毎年二週間しかに咲いていませんが、日本人は一年中桜の景色を覚えて、わくわくしながら次の桜の咲く日を待ちます。僕は桜を見る時に、もちろん「春が来てよかったなー」と言う嬉しい考えもあります。それに少し切なくて、平和の気持ちもなんだか感じます。

     These days, I have been enjoying the Japanese cherry blossoms for the first time. The delicate little pale-pink flowers have burst out of every corner, spreading over the grey city landscapes, verdant countryside, and steep mountainsides alike. They really are everywhere. Strolling through a gorgeously cherry-tree laden park a few days back, I watched all sorts of people enjoying one of Japan's most endearing traditions: the flower viewing. Flower viewings are simple and really lovely. People go to parks and rivers in groups of close friends, family, or otherwise sports teams and corporations. They typically bring a huge picnic basket, and set up camp next to or beneath a canopy of brilliant cherry trees. There, they will usually consume massive amounts of food (including but not limited to cherry-blossom flavored Haagen-Dazs), and often alcohol (picture cherry-blossom pink beer and wine- I've heard it exists) in the case of grown-ups. On that bright Saturday afternoon beneath a cloudless blue sky, I heard the most laughter and saw the most smiles in one single time so far in Japan. The Japanese are not especially stern people in general, but this cold, damp winter weather has held everyone beneath dark parkas and drab mufflers for so long that it was a real treat to welcome spring in such a joyful way. In entering in underneath the cherry tree groves, one really tends to forget oneself and the cold of winter. The blossoms are a light and high-spirited pink on sunny days, and display a melancholy paleness in the rain.
       The cherry tree is viewed as an almost sacred symbol of the human life in Japan, and I think I know why that is. In a short while, the immaculate little blossoms will drift from the trees on a cool April wind, down to the dirty gutters and streets to disintegrate. Every year the flowers silently bloom and whither away like this. In life, all sorts of wonderful experiences begin and suddenly end. Childhood, years in school, and even time spent with a dear friend abruptly begin, and quietly fade away just as cherry blossoms fall to the ground. The only choice we have is to store those dear times and people in our mind, so that while we may never again have those experiences or meet those good people, we can perhaps manage to go back to them once more in memory. Frankly, I'm awful at writing about poetic things (the problems of a science major), and I don't usually consider such topics. To help explain, there is a rather appropriate adjective that I'll borrow from the Japanese: 切ない/setsunai, which literally means "painful", but is often used to mean "sweet painfulness" in an emotional sense. This "sweet pain" is not a tragic sadness, but rather a deep longing for something that is lovely but perhaps indescribable or out of reach. Maybe parents might feel a sweet painfulness when they send their five-year-old to the first day of school. I think some students feel a sweet painfulness on the last day of final exams, for the sense of accomplishment is accompanied with the fact that all the camaraderie with classmates and professors fades away into the silent, stifling summer air.
Anyway, the Japanese treasure their cherry trees, and look forward all throughout the year to just under two weeks of blossoms. When the flowers finally arrive, it really is a joyful time to celebrate the arrival of spring with flower viewings. Of course there is the sweet painfulness of past memories, both recent and distant, but there is the hope for future experiences as well! I am really glad to have seen the cherry blossoms over here :)