How to Read “A morning glory’s flower for a moment”
Asagao no hana hitotoki
Meaning of “A morning glory’s flower for a moment”
“A morning glory’s flower for a moment” is a proverb that means beautiful things and glory end in a short time.
Just as morning glory flowers bloom in the morning and wilt by noon, even the most wonderful things don’t last forever. They pass by in the blink of an eye.
This proverb is used to warn about life’s glory, prosperity, youth, and beauty. These brilliant states don’t last long.
Even when things are going smoothly, you shouldn’t let your guard down. You must treasure your current happiness. This is the lesson embedded in these words.
Today, you can use this proverb to caution someone getting carried away with temporary success. You can also use it to express the fleeting nature of beautiful moments.
However, it’s not just pessimistic. It’s also understood as a positive message. It tells us to cherish this very moment precisely because it won’t last.
Origin and Etymology
There’s no clear record of when this proverb first appeared in literature. However, it likely emerged from the combination of the morning glory plant’s characteristics and Japanese aesthetic sensibility.
Morning glories came to Japan from China during the Nara period as medicinal herbs. By the Heian period, nobles loved them as ornamental plants.
Their most distinctive feature is their fleeting nature. They open their flowers at dawn and wilt by midday. Their life lasts only a few hours, but their beauty is exceptional.
Morning glories have been featured in many waka poems since ancient times.
Japanese people have long cherished the sense of impermanence. Beautiful things don’t last long, like falling cherry blossoms or disappearing dew.
Buddhist thought influenced this worldview. The idea that all things are impermanent flows through the foundation of Japanese culture. Morning glory flowers perfectly symbolize this transient beauty.
The word “hitotoki” means a short time. It refers to the actual hours when morning glory flowers bloom.
At the same time, it overlaps with the brevity of glory and beautiful moments in human life. People saw the fleeting nature of human existence in how brilliantly blooming morning glories wilt so quickly.
Interesting Facts
Morning glories became hugely popular during the Edo period. Everyone from samurai to commoners cultivated them enthusiastically.
Competition to develop rare varieties called “kawari-zaki” became especially heated. A single seed sometimes sold for the equivalent of several million yen in today’s money.
This was truly speculative fever that embodied “A morning glory’s flower for a moment.”
Morning glory flowers don’t actually bloom only in the morning. On cool days, they sometimes stay open until evening.
However, Japanese people found beauty specifically in flowers that bloom only for a short time in the morning. They cherished that fleeting quality.
Usage Examples
- That company’s rapid growth was like a morning glory’s flower for a moment. I hear their management is already struggling.
- Beauty in youth is like a morning glory’s flower for a moment, so you need to polish your inner self.
Universal Wisdom
The proverb “A morning glory’s flower for a moment” contains a fundamental question that humanity has always carried. That question is: “Why are the most beautiful things so fleeting?”
People are instinctively drawn to beautiful and brilliant things. But at the same time, we know they won’t last forever.
Youth turns to old age. Prosperity turns to decline. Glory turns to oblivion. Faced with this unavoidable truth, humanity has shown two responses.
One is a sense of emptiness or resignation. The other is the active attitude of “let’s cherish the present moment precisely because of this.”
This proverb has been passed down not simply to lament impermanence. Rather, it teaches us the value of things that have limits.
If morning glory flowers bloomed all day long, people might not notice their beauty. Because they bloom only for a short time, people wake up early just to see them.
The human heart contains both the desire for eternity and the sensitivity to find beauty in transience. This very contradiction leads people to deep contemplation.
It creates art. It teaches us a way of living that values this very moment. “A morning glory’s flower for a moment” is both a lament for what fades away and a hymn to the shining instant that glows precisely because of that.
When AI Hears This
Looking at morning glory flowers blooming in the morning and wilting by noon from an energy perspective reveals surprising facts.
The act of blooming is the work of assembling scattered molecules into a precise structure. This follows the same principle as everyday life: making a mess is easy, but cleaning up is hard.
Creating order requires enormous energy.
Morning glories reportedly consume about 30 percent of the energy they gain from photosynthesis to bloom a single flower.
It’s like using 30 percent of your smartphone battery all at once to display a beautiful screen for just a few hours.
Moreover, maintaining the vivid pigments in the petals and the precisely folded structure requires constant energy use inside the cells.
Like continuously cooling a room with air conditioning, the cost of maintaining order that would otherwise collapse is surprisingly high.
In other words, morning glories bloom only briefly because they cannot bear the cost of maintaining the highly ordered state called beauty.
According to the laws of the universe, order always moves toward disorder. Life can temporarily resist this flow, but the price must always be paid.
The fleeting nature of morning glories is proof that beauty is thermodynamically expensive.
Lessons for Today
What this proverb teaches modern you is the value of “now.” This teaching is especially important in our current age.
We tend to feel anxious seeing others’ glamorous lives on social media. We tend to assume our own success will last forever.
What matters is how you live knowing about transience. Precisely because it’s a morning glory’s flower for a moment, don’t miss the beauty and happiness of this very moment.
Right now when you’re succeeding at work. Right now when your family is healthy. Right now when you can laugh with friends. These things are not guaranteed.
At the same time, if you’re going through a hard period now, know that this too is temporary. Difficult situations won’t last forever either.
Just as new flowers bloom the next morning even after morning glory flowers wilt, new seasons will surely come in your life too.
This proverb teaches the importance of living humbly in the present. Don’t become arrogant in success. Don’t despair in failure.
Look carefully at each flower blooming in the garden of your life.
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