Cherry blossoms—
if you must fall, then fall;
though you do not fall,
no one from my old home
comes here to see you.

Meaning

Cherry blossoms—if you are to fall, then fall. Even if you do not fall, no one from my old home comes to see you.

Commentary

Book II, Spring Poems (Part Two)

A poem composed and sent to the monk Henjō.

The repeated phrasing of “if you fall, then fall—though you do not fall” presses insistently, as if to release pent-up frustration from the heart.

The poet, Prince Koretaka, though the first son of Emperor Montoku, was forced into an unwilling life and eventually took religious vows. The “people of my old home” likely refers to those with whom he had close relations in the capital.

Author

Prince Koretaka

Source

Kokin Wakashu

Other

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.
Where blossoms fall, of cherry trees—in spring, it is as though snow keeps on falling, and will not easily melt away.
Who knows, I wonder, where the dwelling of the wind that scatters blossoms lies? Tell it to me— I will go and reproach it.

Cherry blossoms— if you must fall, then fall; though you do not fall, no one from my old home comes here to see you.

Cherry blossoms—
if you must fall, then fall;
though you do not fall,
no one from my old home
comes here to see you.