1.
impermanence, transience
The Buddhist concept that all things are transient and nothing remains unchanged. A fundamental idea in Japanese aesthetics and philosophy, closely tied to the appreciation of fleeting beauty.
人生の無常を感じる。
I feel the impermanence of life.
散りゆく桜に無常を感じるのは日本人ならではの感性だ。
Feeling impermanence in falling cherry blossoms is a sensibility unique to the Japanese.
「祇園精舎の鐘の声、諸行無常の響きあり」は、『平家物語』の冒頭として有名だ。
"The sound of the bells of Gion Shoja echoes the impermanence of all things" is famous as the opening of The Tale of the Heike.
CULTURAL NOTE:
無常 is one of the most important concepts in Japanese culture, originating from Buddhist philosophy. The idea that all phenomena are transient pervades Japanese literature, art, and aesthetics — from the opening of the 平家物語 (The Tale of the Heike) to the appreciation of 桜 (cherry blossoms) precisely because they fall.
KEY EXPRESSION:
諸行無常 (all things are impermanent) is a core Buddhist teaching and one of the most widely known four-character idioms in Japanese.
RELATED CONCEPTS:
- 無常観: a worldview based on impermanence
- 無常の風: the "wind of impermanence" (poetic expression for death)
- 儚い: fleeting, ephemeral (an aesthetic concept closely related to 無常)
COMMON COLLOCATIONS:
- 無常を感じる: to feel impermanence
- 諸行無常: all things are impermanent
- 無常観: sense of impermanence
- 世の無常: the transience of the world