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?
- Meaning
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Had you not come today, it would have fallen as snow tomorrow. Even if it had not vanished, could it still be seen as a flower?
- Commentary
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Spring Songs, Book One
A reply poem to “Why call it fickle, the cherry blossoms? / They, too, waited for one who comes but rarely in a year.”
The woman likened herself, waiting for Narihira, to cherry blossoms; taking up the image of how easily cherry blossoms fall, he replies with irony—had he not come today, who knows what would have become of them by tomorrow.
- Author
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Ariwara no Narihira
- Source
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Kokin Wakashu
- Other
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O cherry blossoms, in a year when spring days abound,
will you not let the human heart be sated?
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Why call it fickle, the cherry blossoms?
They, too, waited for one who comes but rarely in a year.
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Once they have fallen, though one yearns, there is no avail;
So today, if I am to pluck the cherry blossoms, let me pluck them.
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If I were to pluck them, would it not be too painful, these cherry blossoms?
Come, let me lodge here and watch them until they fall.