Yase sune mo
Areba 20, hana no
Yoshino-yama.
—Basho
Though my shanks are thin
I go where flowers blossom,
Yoshino Mountain.
So beautiful and numerous are the wild cherry blossoms of Mount
Yoshino in Nara Prefecture that they are well worth the six-
thousand-foot climb by an old man whose legs are thin and less
strong than they were in youth. So the good life is a long and
upward climb, especially arduous in the latter years; but the final
reward is satisfaction.