Even the green of ever-constant pines, when spring comes,
now deepens by yet another degree.

Meaning

Even the green of the ever-constant pines, when spring comes, deepens yet another degree.

Commentary

Spring Songs, Book One

This poem was paired in a poetry contest held in the imperial women’s quarters during the Kanpyō era.

Pines are evergreens whose color does not change through the year, yet when spring comes and all trees grow more vivid in green, the pines too appear to deepen their brightness. The poem sings that the coming of spring makes even the color of the pines seem more vivid.

Author

Minamoto no Muneyuki

Source

Kokin Wakashu

Other

Perhaps going to Kasuga Field to gather young greens, people go with the sleeves of their white garments fluttering.
The spring-worn robe of haze, its weft threads thin, by the mountain wind is like to be torn and rent.
Each time the spring rain falls on my beloved’s robe, the green of the fields alone deepens its color.
In the spring when green willows spin threads and weave them, so abundant with thread— yet the blossoms burst open in wild disarray.

Even the green of ever-constant pines, when spring comes, now deepens by yet another degree.

Even the green of ever-constant pines, when spring comes,
now deepens by yet another degree.