With green leaves the peach-trees are loaded,
The breeze blows gently along the stream,
Willows shade the winding path,
Darting orioles collect in groups.
Eagerly I press forward
As the reality grows upon me. . . .
'Tis the eternal theme,
Which, though old, is ever new.*

Here is reality emerging from the unreal, spring renewing, love and beauty
triumphant over death and decay. The girl is the central type and symbol.
From her laughing eyes a thousand dead women look out once more on spring,
through her poets find their inspiration. Beauty is the key that unlocks
the secrets of the frozen world, and brings the dead to life again.

--
* `History of Chinese Literature', by Professor Herbert Giles, p. 180.
--

The Symbol of Decay!

The Symbol of Immortality!

It is perhaps both. There are times when the grave words of the Dhammapada
fall like shadows along the path: "What is life but the flower or the fruit
which falls when ripe, yet ever fears the untimely frost? Once born,
there is naught but sorrow; for who is there can escape death?
From the first moment of life, the result of passionate love and desire,
there is nought but the bodily form transitional as the lightning flash."
Yet apart from all transitory passions and the ephemeral results