If in this world here
There were no cherry blossoms—
Then surely in spring
The hearts of people would be
Far more calm and untroubled.
- Meaning
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If there were no cherry blossoms at all in this world, then in spring the hearts of people would surely be more peaceful and at ease.
- Commentary
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82. The Heart in Spring
Long ago there was a prince called Prince Koretaka. Beyond Yamazaki there was a detached palace at a place called Minase, and every year when the cherry blossoms were in full bloom he would visit that palace. At such times he would always bring with him the man who was then the head of the Right Horse Bureau.
They did not devote themselves much to falconry but spent their time drinking wine and delighting in composing poems. The cherry blossoms at the Nagisa Palace, a residence on the bank of the Yodo River at Katano where falconry was practiced, were especially elegant and beautiful. There they dismounted their horses beneath the cherry trees and sat down, and people of many different ranks among the attendants composed poems.
The poem was composed then by the head of the Right Horse Bureau.
The poem expresses the thought that if there were no cherry blossoms, people would not worry about when the blossoms might fall nor feel regret when they do, and their hearts in spring would be calm and untroubled. Though it seems to wish simply for peace of mind, it also poignantly expresses a deep attachment to the cherry blossoms that trouble the heart throughout the spring. The feeling may also be applied to the relations between men and women.
The head of the Right Horse Bureau was Ariwara no Narihira, and The Tosa Diary records that he composed this poem at the Nagisa Palace.
Yamazaki corresponds to present-day Ōyamazaki in Otokuni District, Kyoto Prefecture, on the western bank of the Yodo River.
Minase corresponds to the area around Hirose in present-day Mishima District, Osaka Prefecture.
Katano corresponds roughly to present-day Hirakata City in Osaka Prefecture and was famous as a place for falconry.
- Source
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Ise Monogatari
- Other
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