If it must be so,
would it not be better
not to bloom at all,
cherry blossoms?
Even I who gaze cannot keep a tranquil heart.
- Meaning
- If it must be like this, would it not be better if the cherry blossoms did not bloom at all? Even I who watch them cannot keep a calm heart.
- Commentary
-
Book II, Spring Poems (Part Two)
A poem composed upon seeing the cherry blossoms fall.
So great is the sorrow at their scattering that the poet laments it would be better if they had never bloomed at all, since even the one who watches cannot remain at ease.
- Author
- Ki no Tsurayuki
- Source
- Kokin Wakashu
- Other
-
- Shut up within, unaware where spring has gone, all the while— the blossoms I had long awaited have already faded away.
- More fleeting still than when upon the branch, the blossoms fell; so even as they drift below, they become but foam upon the water.
- Cherry blossoms— it does not seem they fall so very swiftly; it is the human heart that changes before the wind has even blown through.
- In the gentle light of a calm spring day— why is it so? Without a tranquil heart, the blossoms fall away.