Flowing water on,
Passing years of mortal life,
And the falling flowers—
Which of these has ever heard
The word that bids it to wait?
- Meaning
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Flowing water, passing years, and falling blossoms—which of these has ever heard the word that tells it to wait?
- Commentary
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50. If Birds’ Eggs Were Piled
There was a certain man. He resented a woman who reproached him, saying that he was unfaithful.
The man and woman composed poems, each blaming the other.
This poem is the man’s reply to the woman’s poem: “More fleeting even than tracing numbers upon flowing water is to love a person who does not think of one at all.”
It gathers together the earlier poems—“More fleeting even than to trace a count in water flowing on,” “Morning dew may yet remain without vanishing,” and “Though in the blowing wind last year’s cherry blossoms should not fall at all.”
Setting side by side water, time, and flowers, all things that do not remain, he suggests that none can be held back at one’s will, and that the human heart is no different.
- Source
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Ise Monogatari
- Other
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