" Can I, that these flowers’ obsequies attend,
Divine how soon or late my life will end?
Let others laugh flower-burial to see:
Another year who will be burying me? As petals drop and spring begins to fail,
The bloom of youth, too, sickens and turns pale.
One day, when spring has gone and youth has fled.
The Maiden and the flowers will both be dead. "

― Cao Xueqin , The Story of the Stone, or The Dream of the Red Chamber, Vol. 2: The Crab-Flower Club