Weeping Cherry Tree

I have a weeping cherry tree in our front yard and each spring it bursts onto strings

of pink delicate blossoms. People stop in the street to admire them. Looking through the

branches of the weeping cherry tree, poet Tanizaki Junichiro asked, “Are they lines of

crimson rain, or a weeping cherry tree, or just a dream? “ The wind eventually scatters the

petals in every direction so that “even a treeless yard is filled with cherry blossoms.” Six of

Tanizaki’s poems are set to music in the koto piece, “Miyako Wasure” by Tomiyama Seikin,

1960.