A Small Sunny Hare On Cherry Blooms.

 

            Oh happiness… Who invented this venture: to give it a definition?  It… that is the most inexplicable and incomprehensible.

            It is so subtle and elusive. I can’t be caught as can’t be caught that sunbeam, what is putting the merry bright spot onto the wall of your room. We call it a ‘small sunny hare’. Here you are – a little naïve kid! – you are trying to grab it; now, you are sure it is in your fist, but – umps! – it’s hopping again on the wall.

Who hasn’t tried to catch a morning star by its tail or to hold on water in his hands?

           Some wise one said: happiness doesn’t have the present; it exists only in the future or past. How many times, you made your plans building your dreams like the lighthouses on the horizon of your life sea. You wanted to reach the horizon… But even when you succeeded in, you suddenly discovered the oasis was so boring or the lighthouses were dying down in the mirages.

           In our everyday routine, we aim for a good job, money and prestigious things in the hope that they will bring us happiness. But when we look back and remember the moment when we really were happy, who of us can remember what kind of food was for breakfast that day or how much money was jingling in his pocket or whether his boss praised him or not? Do you? Was it when you were running home from your school to show your mother your first excellent mark or when you were taming your hopping heart by the way to your first date or when you furtevly licked your sport medal to check if it still isn’t salty of your sweat or when you heard for the first the cry of your newborn child? …But you don’t even remember what you were wearing then.

           On that day, you didn’t even notice how beautiful were the shining snowflakes under the bright winter sun falling on your white town. Or were the blossoming cherry trees there? Oh, perhaps, it was the warm tender sun setting into the hot sand of your tropical lagoon.

           But then, when your loved one told you ‘no’, didn’t you feel like the petals of the cherry blooms smashed down into the spring mud by the wind gust? And when your intimate friend was passing away, didn’t you agree to give away all the money from your just raised wage for the sake of his life?

           Happiness. You are a migratory bird. Would you agree to get money to stay here forever? …You are flying away. Fly. We are going to celebrate our meeting again.

………

 

Happiness is like the sun: a small cloud

goes through the sky in the middle of day –

the sun is already shining so dully and dimly;

a moment – and there is no sun.

 

Happiness is like cherry bloom petals:

a wind flows and a spring is in tears –

so they fall snowflake-like into mud;

a moment – and there are no blooms.

 

Happiness is like clear flying dreams:

one sharp word or a little remark –

so they are burning in fire;

a moment – and there are no dreams.

 

N. Arsenneva