さくら花春くははれる年だにも
人の心にあかれやはせぬ
人の心にあかれやはせぬ
- Roma-ji
-
Sakurabana haru kuwawareru toshi dani mo
hito no kokoro ni akare ya wa senu - English Translation
-
O cherry blossoms, in a year when spring days abound,
will you not let the human heart be sated?
- Meaning
- O cherry blossoms—when spring days abound in a year, will you not at last let the human heart be satisfied?
- Commentary
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Spring Songs, Book One
A poem composed in a year with an intercalary third month.
From a heart that loves the cherry blossoms, the poet wishes they would linger long enough to be seen to satiety, playing on the fact that spring was lengthened by a leap month.
- Author
- Ise
- Source
- Kokin Wakashu
- Other
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- The cherry blossoms have bloomed, it seems— from the mountain’s ravines appear white clouds.
- On Mount Yoshino’s slopes the cherry blossoms bloom— so white that I mistook them only for snow.
- Why call it fickle, the cherry blossoms? They, too, waited for one who comes but rarely in a year.
- Had you not come today, tomorrow it would have fallen as snow; Even if it did not vanish, could it be seen as a flower?