From this year on,
first learning what spring is,
O cherry blossoms—
do not learn this thing they call
falling from other trees.

Meaning

O cherry blossoms that have first learned what spring is from this year on, do not learn from other trees the thing they call falling.

Commentary

Spring Songs, Book One

A poem composed on seeing the cherry blossoms planted at another’s house bloom for the first time this year.

In Book One of , the sequence of cherry-blossom poems begins with this poem and continues to the end of the book. Placing, as the opening poem, one about blossoms that bloom for the first time this year reflects editorial consideration in the compilation.

Author

Ki no Tsurayuki

Source

Kokin Wakashu

Other

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.
Seeing them fall, that should have been all—yet these plum blossoms, so vexing, leave their fragrance lingering on my sleeves.
High on the mountain, where people do not come at all, O cherry blossoms— do not grieve too bitterly; I will hasten to praise you.
Mountain cherry trees— I have come on purpose to see; spring haze rises, on the peaks and on the slopes, standing thick, concealing them.

From this year on, first learning what spring is, O cherry blossoms— do not learn this thing they call falling from other trees.

From this year on,
first learning what spring is,
O cherry blossoms—
do not learn this thing they call
falling from other trees.