When the wind blows on,
Is it like a rock always
Crossed by rising waves?
My sleeves of my robe
Have no time at all to dry.
- Meaning
- When the wind blows, is it like a rock that the waves endlessly wash over? My sleeves are always wet with tears and never have a time to dry.
- Commentary
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108. When the Wind Blows
The poem was composed by a woman lamenting the man’s heartlessness.
The waves that rise when the wind blows suggest the man’s easily changing feelings. The woman compares herself to a rock in the sea, over which the waves constantly pass, meaning that her sleeves are forever wet with tears and never have time to dry.
- Source
- Ise Monogatari
- Other
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- Because it is shallow Only sleeves are wet, perhaps, In this river of tears; If I heard your very self Flowing there, I would trust it.
- In many ways I think, Yet cannot ask if you think Of me, or think not; So the rain that knows my fate Falls ever more heavily.
- Each evening again In the fields where many frogs Are crying aloud, The water only grows more— Though no rain at all may fall.
- More than the blossoms, People have proved more fickle— So it has become. Which would I see first to fade, And then long for in my heart?