Beneath the Cherry Trees

There is a corpse buried under the cherry tree! 　This is a good thing to believe. Why is it so hard to believe that the cherry blossoms bloom so beautifully? I've been worried for the past few days because I couldn't believe the beauty of it. But now I finally understand. There is a corpse buried under the cherry tree. This is something I can believe. You can imagine that there are corpses buried, one by one, under this blooming cherry tree. It will make sense to you, what was making me so anxious. 　A corpse like a horse, a corpse like a cat or a dog or a human, the corpses, all of them rotting, maggoty, and smelly as hell. All of them are rotting, maggoty and smelly. The roots of the cherry tree held them in their arms like covetous octopuses, and gathered together their hairy roots like the threads of an impatient goblin to suck the liquid. 　I don't know what makes the petals like that, what makes the stamens like that, but I can see the crystal liquid being sucked up by the hair follicles in a silent procession, going up through the vascular bundles like a dream. I can see the crystal liquid being sucked by the hair follicles in a silent procession up the vascular bundle like a dream. It's beautiful clairvoyance, isn't it? Now I can finally see the cherry blossoms with my eyes fixed on them. I am now free from the mysteries that made me uneasy yesterday and the day before. (from "Beneath the Cherry Trees" by Kijirou Kajii) Painted March 2018