More than its color,
its fragrance moves the heart—
so deeply it feels;
whose sleeves once brushed this lodge’s
plum to leave such scent behind?
- Meaning
- More than its color, its fragrance feels deeply moving to the heart; whose sleeves once brushed the plum at this lodge to leave behind such a lingering scent?
- Commentary
-
Spring Songs, Book One
The poem sings of the relationship between the plum’s fragrance and the lingering scent left behind.
The pleasing scent is imagined as the transferred fragrance of some noble person’s sleeves.
- Author
- Unknown Poet
- Source
- Kokin Wakashu
- Other
-
- Seeing spring’s haze rise, the geese go, leaving it all; to a flowerless town— are they so used to living where no blossoms bloom?
- When I plucked them, my sleeves are what now smell— plum blossoms’ scent; thinking blossoms are here, the warbler sings nearby.
- Near my dwelling, I would not plant plum blossoms— how pointless that would be; for their scent is mistaken for the sleeves of one I await.
- The plum blossoms said to be sewn on the warbler’s hat— I will break them off and set them in my hair, thinking they may hide my age.