289Japanese quotation 名言
よどみに浮かぶうたかたは、かつ消えかつ結びて、久しくとどまりたるためしなし
よどみにうかぶうたかたは、かつきえかつむすびて、ひさしくとどまりたるためしなしYodomi ni ukabu utakata wa, katsu kie katsu musubite, hisashiku todomaritaru tameshi nashi
“The foam floating on still water dissolves here, reforms there, and never lingers long.”
The meaning
After the river, the foam: everything forms and unforms endlessly, and nothing lasts in the same shape. Seeing this calmly changes one's relation to losses — and to beginnings.
At the origin
The second sentence of Kamo no Chōmei's Hōjōki (1212), following "the river flows on and on".
The characters
- よどみ yodomistill water
- に nion, in
- 浮かぶ ukabuto float
- うたかた
- は
- 、
- かつ
- 消え
- かつ
- 結びて
- 、
- 久しく
- とどまりたる
- ためし
- なし
にParticleThe point of arrival: a place, a moment, a destination.
In practice
What is dissolving in your life right now may be preparing a new form.