Leaving nothing behind,
they fall—how admirable,
cherry blossoms;
for in this world,
if things were to remain,
their end would turn unpleasant.

Meaning

How admirable it is— cherry blossoms that fall all away; for in this world, if things were to remain, their end would turn unpleasant.

Commentary

Book II, Spring Poems (Part Two)

It is said that the merit of cherry blossoms lies precisely in their falling.

If relationships between men and women, or among people, continue too long, they will in time become strained and bitter; thus, perhaps, there is an unfulfilled wish that human bonds might be like the cherry blossoms.

Author

Unknown Poet

Source

Kokin Wakashu

Other

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.
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?
In this village, I may pass the night on my journey; cherry blossoms— in the confusion of their falling, I forget the road home.
Is it like this fleeting world— cherry blossoms in bloom? Even as I looked, they had already begun to fall, and were gone.

Leaving nothing behind, they fall—how admirable, cherry blossoms; for in this world, if things were to remain, their end would turn unpleasant.

Leaving nothing behind,
they fall—how admirable,
cherry blossoms;
for in this world,
if things were to remain,
their end would turn unpleasant.