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.
- Meaning
- If only I could transfer the plum’s fragrance to my sleeves and keep it; even when spring passes at once, it would become a keepsake of the plum blossoms.
- Commentary
-
Spring Songs, Book One
A poem paired in the poetry contest held in the inner court in the reign of Emperor Kanpyō.
It expresses an intense attachment to the plum blossoms.
- Author
- Unknown Poet
- Source
- Kokin Wakashu
- Other
-
- Over the years, the water that becomes the flowers’ mirror— when blossoms scatter down, would one say the water’s mirror has grown clouded?
- 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?
- Seeing them fall, that should have been all—yet these plum blossoms, so vexing, leave their fragrance lingering on my sleeves.
- From this year on, first learning what spring is, O cherry blossoms— do not learn this thing they call falling from other trees.