…When love shoots you with arrows of ruination?

落花流水
ra-.kka.ryuu.sui

Literally: fall / drop – flower – flow – water

Alternately: Today’s yojijukugo is interesting because it has a series of seemingly unrelated meanings. The image invoked is of falling flowers and running water, specifically of petals flowing away down a stream. ① This invokes the sense of springtime passing away. The sense of loss and evanescence is also reminiscent of ② an object or person that has come to ruin or been reduced to poverty.

However, the phrase can also refer to ③ mutual love and understanding between two people, especially romantic love between a man and a woman.

Notes: Writing 落花 with homophone 落下, “a fall,” is an error. However, the elements of the compound may be reversed and written as 流水落花.

Also the title of a four-panel-format comic about the antics of an archery club at an all-girls school.

(Note: Tomorrow is Yom Kippur, so the usual Wednesday 四字熟語 post is going up a bit early.)