The cherry blossoms have bloomed, it seems—
from the mountain’s ravines appear white clouds.
- Meaning
- It seems that the cherry blossoms have bloomed; the white clouds that appear from the mountain ravines must surely be the blossoms themselves.
- Commentary
-
Spring Songs, Book One
A poem composed and presented when the Emperor commanded, “Offer a poem.”
It likens the cherry blossoms to clouds. This is not a new conceit.
- Author
- Ki no Tsurayuki
- Source
- Kokin Wakashu
- Other
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- In color and scent, just as in the days of old, bloom the cherry flowers; yet the one who lives through years has changed and grown anew.
- Who was it sought and plucked, I wonder, spring haze— rising to hide the mountain’s cherry blossoms?
- On Mount Yoshino’s slopes the cherry blossoms bloom— so white that I mistook them only for snow.
- O cherry blossoms, in a year when spring days abound, will you not let the human heart be sated?