"I cannot stand it!" cried the first. "How can you stand here by my side and not weep at the sight, I will not understand. Do you not see the flowers withering, the once fertile ground freezing? Does not the silence, once full of birdsongs, deafen you? The way sunbeams would dance in the stream's flow, now only facing heavy ice. I miss the starlings on my cherry trees, although a bother, ever so joyful as they feasted on the fruits! And now, only death and desertedness lurk around! I shall not stand it!" "You are quite wrong, my friend," said the other with a smile. "Think of it as sleep, rather than death, and tranquility, rather than desertedness. Do you not remember that snowdrops will soon awake and peek from under their white blanket? Nor that Sun will melt all the ice away, not even that the starlings will soon return and sit on your cherry trees, watching them bud anew? Nay, my friend, the world slumbers and means to come back. All is well. Come, let me take you home. I will make you rosehip tea, wrap you in warm blankets and read you your favourite book. There is no reason for tears!" and the second hugged the first, who sobbed gently in their shirt, but they soon left together to enjoy the warmth of home.
based on a conversation with a friend