How to Read “A day cannot become morning again”
Ichijitsu futatabi ashita nari gatashi
Meaning of “A day cannot become morning again”
This proverb expresses the truth that time once passed never returns. Morning comes only once in each day, and you can never experience the same morning twice.
Through this simple fact, the saying teaches us that time moves in one direction and is precious.
People use this proverb to warn against wasting time or to encourage others to cherish the present moment.
It reminds us not to let irreplaceable moments slip away—our youth, our health, or time with loved ones.
Even today, people use this saying when expressing regret about lost time or when making a resolution to value the present.
In the digital age, time remains the one thing that is equal for everyone and can never be recovered.
Origin and Etymology
This phrase likely comes from ancient Chinese classics like “Huainanzi” and the poetry of Tao Yuanming.
Tao Yuanming’s famous line “Youth does not come twice, a day cannot become morning again” is especially well-known and was transmitted to Japan in this form.
“Ashita” (晨) is a classical Chinese word meaning dawn or morning. Morning, the beginning of each day, comes only once.
Yesterday’s morning, tomorrow’s morning, and today’s morning are all different. The same morning never returns—this expresses a simple truth of nature.
In ancient China, many thinkers pondered the irreversibility of time.
Like water flowing in a river that is never the same water twice, time once passed never comes back.
This understanding connected deeply with questions about how one should live.
The saying came to Japan along with Chinese poetry and literature. During the Edo period, it appeared in moral instruction books.
As a phrase teaching the value of time, it has been emphasized in education throughout history.
By using morning—something everyone experiences daily—to convey the essence of time, this expression has resonated with people for centuries.
Usage Examples
- Even if I regret not studying harder back then, “a day cannot become morning again”—I can’t return to the past, so I just have to work hard from now on
- Since “a day cannot become morning again,” I want to treasure this time while my children are still small
Universal Wisdom
Humans are strange creatures who live under the illusion that time is infinite.
We unconsciously believe that tomorrow, next week, and next year will continue flowing just the same.
But this proverb confronts us with how dangerous that illusion is.
Today exists only today. This very morning is unique—it has never occurred since the universe began and will never come again until the universe ends.
Yet we postpone things, saying “maybe later” or “I can do it anytime.”
Our ancestors left us this saying because they deeply understood this human tendency.
Even when we intellectually grasp that time is limited, truly feeling it in our hearts is difficult.
That’s why they used the concrete, familiar example of morning to make the irreversibility of time memorable.
This proverb has been passed down through generations because humans are always in a struggle with time.
We have countless things we want to do, but time is limited. Time with loved ones is not eternal either.
This urgency is the same for ancient people and for us today.
When we truly realize how precious time is, perhaps that’s when we really begin to live.
When AI Hears This
Looking at morning from a physics perspective, you realize it’s actually an extremely special low-entropy state in the universe.
Entropy measures the degree of disorder, and in nature, it can only increase.
The moment of morning, when Earth rotates and sunlight hits at a specific angle, is an ordered state with temperature gradients and organized light energy distribution.
But this state inevitably breaks down according to physical laws. Solar heat is absorbed by the ground, the atmosphere warms, and energy disperses and equalizes.
In other words, from day to night, everything moves toward increasingly disordered, high-entropy states.
What’s fascinating is that reversing this process is fundamentally impossible.
Just as a broken egg cannot reassemble itself, scattered heat energy cannot be gathered back into the morning state.
When Earth completes one rotation, the next morning certainly comes, but it’s not a “replay of the same morning.”
It’s a “new low-entropy state” that arrives after entropy has increased even further.
The one-way direction of time shown in this proverb is actually the Second Law of Thermodynamics that governs the universe.
The ancients expressed poetically what modern physics proves with equations.
Lessons for Today
This proverb teaches modern people liberation from regret and procrastination.
If lamenting lost time won’t bring it back, we have no choice but to focus on this present moment.
That’s not resignation—it’s a powerful determination to move forward.
In modern society, smartphones and social media constantly steal our attention and pull us away from the present moment.
Before we know it, the day ends and we feel empty, having accomplished nothing.
But “a day cannot become morning again” doesn’t blame us for that emptiness. Instead, it gives us courage to greet tomorrow’s morning as a fresh start.
What matters is not aiming for perfection. Do what you can do today. Meet the people you want to see. Say the words you want to say.
Even small steps accumulate into a life.
Because time doesn’t return, today shines brightly. Please live your morning today with care.
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