The scent of flowers,
entrusting it to the wind,
I send it along—
a guide that hastens to lead
the bush warbler forth.
- Meaning
-
I entrust the blooming plum’s fragrance to the wind as a messenger, sending it as a guide to lure the bush warbler out.
- Commentary
-
Spring Songs, Book One
A poem from the poetry contest at court in the reign of Kanpyō.
Though the plum, a spring sight, is already in bloom, the bush warbler, another sign of spring, has not yet begun to sing.
The poet imagines that, if the plum’s fragrance were sent along with the wind, the bush warbler would notice and come forth—an instance of personification.
- Author
-
Ki no Tomonori
- Source
-
Kokin Wakashu
- Other
-
-
People say, “spring has come,”
yet, unless the bush warbler sings,
I think it has not—
so long as it does not sing,
spring is not yet here.
-
In the valley wind,
between gaps where ice melts,
from each small opening
waves come flowing out—are these
spring’s very first flowers?
-
If from the valley
no voice of the bush warbler
were to come forth,
who then would ever know
that spring has come at all?
-
Though spring has come,
in the mountain village where
even flowers give no scent,
with a weary-sounding cry
the bush warbler sings.