On plum-blossomed boughs,
a bush warbler comes to rest;
calling for the spring—
yet still, though it calls and calls,
the snow keeps falling down.
- Meaning
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The bush warbler perches on branches where the plum has blossomed, calling out as it waits for spring to come; and yet, though it calls, there is still no sign of spring, and the snow continues to fall lightly.
- Commentary
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Volume One: Spring Songs (Upper)
The occasion for composing this poem is unknown.
Plum blossoms and the bush warbler, images of spring, already show the beginning of a tendency toward conventionalized seasonal imagery.
- Author
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Unknown Poet
- Source
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Kokin Wakashu
- Other
-
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The palace guards
and their men stand far aside;
in the unswept court,
where no one tends the garden,
flowers have fallen and lie.
-
Two strokes for “ko,”
the ox-horn shape for “i,”
the straight line “shi,”
the crooked form for “ku”—
thus, my lord, you are.
-
Over sea and hills,
I spent my heart upon the road;
no sacred bowl found—
from the bowl that was not there,
blood-red tears flowed at last.
-
Even the light of resting dew might well lodge—
on Mount Ogura, what was it you sought?