So his thoughts returned always to the same family. As he sank deeper in memories of Uji, of his strange, cruel ties with the Uji family, drake flies, than which no creatures are more fragile and insubstantial, were flitting back and forth in the evening light.
‘I see the drake fly, take it up in my hand.
Ah, here it is, I say − and it is gone.’
And he added softly, as always: ‘Here, and perhaps not here at all.’
− Murasaki Shikibu 紫式部, The Tale of Genji (源氏物語 Genji monogatari)
Chapter 52 “The Drake Fly” (蜻蛉 Kagerō)
Translation by Edward Seidensticker.