Spring haze drifts on
over mountains where cherry blooms—
as their colors fade,
is it that they will soon fall,
changing thus before they go?
- Meaning
- On mountains where spring haze drifts, the cherry blossoms change their color little by little—does this mean they will soon fall?
- Commentary
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Book Two Spring Poems (Part Two)
The cherry blossoms on distant mountains appear to have faded in color, and the poem expresses a sense of longing, wondering if they are about to begin to fall.
It may be that the poet wished for more people to see and appreciate them.
- Author
- Unknown Poet
- Source
- Kokin Wakashu
- Other
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- What I have in mind I will not speak, but let it come to an end thus— for there is no other one whose heart is the same as mine.
- The road we must go at last, so I had heard— yet I did not think it would be yesterday or today that it would come.
- Leaving nothing behind, they fall—how admirable, cherry blossoms; for in this world, if things were to remain, their end would turn unpleasant.
- In this village, I may pass the night on my journey; cherry blossoms— in the confusion of their falling, I forget the road home.