In the spring night’s dark,
how pointless is the deep gloom—
plum blossoms:
though their color is not seen,
how could their scent be hidden?
- Meaning
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The darkness of a spring night is truly futile: in the dark the color of the plum blossoms cannot be seen, but how could their fragrance be hidden? It cannot be hidden.
- Commentary
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Spring Songs, Book One
A poem composed on a spring night, on plum blossoms.
This poem exaggerates the fragrance of plum blossoms.
Though their form is unseen, it calls to mind a lover whose only presence is the scented robes, their fragrance drifting through the dark.
- Author
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Oshikochi no Mitsune
- Source
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Kokin Wakashu
- Other
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In spring, when
plum blossoms give forth their scent,
Mount Kurabu—
though I crossed it in the dark of night,
clearly, there they were, I knew.
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On a moonlit night,
I could not tell which was which—
plum blossoms,
so by seeking out their scent,
I came to know the way.
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You—who knows?
your heart I do not know;
as for this old home,
only the blossoms, as of old,
still give forth their scent.
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Each spring, the flowing stream
I take for blossoms,
and reaching for flowers
that cannot be plucked,
my sleeves are wet with water.