I’m madly in love with shiroyashio. There, I’ve said it.

Shiroyashio. Otherwise, known as Rhododendron quinquefolium. It’s a short, stocky, rugged sort of tree, with rough bark—thus, the sometimes nickname of Japanese cork azaela—that grows mainly, as far as I know, along the ridges of a limited number of mountains in Japan.

The leaves come in whorls of five, with each green whorl red-tipped—“flowers” in themselves. If you can get up to the mountain on just the right day, the white blossoms will be open, and the fresh red and green leaves will glisten in the blue sky like springtime stars. It will amaze you.

At least, it amazes me. Looking at these guys in their spanky clean colors, there’s no way I can feel blue.

When I look at them, and the sun that makes them glisten shines on me, too, well, it’s hard—really hard—to worry about the end of me. Or you.

THE END OF ME

I can feel the end of me / I will never find life’s key

(But) I don’t want your sympathy / (She said) I can feel the end of me.

 I see darkness in the sky / I have lost my will to try

(She said) I no longer can say why / (But) I see darkness in the sky.

 

(I said) Please come with me / See what we can see

Please come with me / Feel what we can be.

I just feel that all is vain / Sunny days look like the freezing rain

(She said) I can’t bear this kind of pain / I just feel that all’s in vain.

 (I said) Please come with me / See what we can see

Please come with me / Feel what we can be.

 Plum blossoms are bursting open now

White-eyed birds are sucking at the source

Cherry petals soon will paint the sky

The yashio will give us reasons why

Red-tipped leaves will glisten like the stars

It’s bound to give your closed-up heart a jar

Open it, pump in that mountain air

Then you’ll see it’s not all so unfair.

You can find so much happiness–

Just open – your heart.

You can find so much happiness—

Just follow – your heart.