Over the years, the water
that becomes the flowers’ mirror—
when blossoms scatter down,
would one say the water’s mirror
has grown clouded?
- Meaning
- Over the years, the water that has become a mirror for the flowers—when blossoms scatter down upon it, would one say that the water mirror has grown clouded?
- Commentary
-
Spring Songs, Book One
A poem composed on seeing plum blossoms blooming by the waterside.
In “when blossoms scatter down,” the word “scatter” plays on both the falling of flowers and the settling of dust. When dust settles, a mirror grows clouded.
- Author
- Ise
- Source
- Kokin Wakashu
- Other
-
- 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.
- Each spring, the flowing stream I take for blossoms, and reaching for flowers that cannot be plucked, my sleeves are wet with water.
- Coming and going, I did not let my eyes leave the plum blossoms— at dusk I looked on them, at dawn I looked on them; yet when did they fade away?
- If only I could transfer the plum’s fragrance to my sleeves and keep it— though spring should pass at once, it would be a keepsake.