朝ちょう菌きん

noun

morning mushroom; ephemeral thing

Archaic term for a mushroom that appears in the morning and withers by night, used figuratively for something short-lived. Rare in modern Japanese; encountered mainly in classical literature.

• 「朝ちょう菌きんは晦かい朔さくを知しらず」という言こと葉ばが荘そう子じにある。

  There is a phrase in Zhuangzi: 'The morning mushroom knows nothing of the new moon or the full moon.'

• 朝ちょう菌きんのように儚はかない人じん生せいを嘆なげく詩しがある。

  There is a poem that laments a life as fleeting as a morning mushroom.