In the gentle light
of a calm spring day—
why is it so?
Without a tranquil heart,
the blossoms fall away.
- Meaning
- In the gentle light of a calm spring day, why do the blossoms fall as though they cannot keep a tranquil heart?
- Commentary
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Book II, Spring Poems (Part Two)
A poem composed on the scattering of cherry blossoms.
A well-known poem also included in the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu. It contrasts the peaceful spring sunlight of the first half with the restless falling of the blossoms in the second.
Hisakata no is a pillow word that modifies “light.”
- Author
- Ki no Tomonori
- Source
- Kokin Wakashu
- Other
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- 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.
- 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.
- Spring wind, pass by the blossoms and blow elsewhere; then shall I see whether they fade of their own accord.
- Even as snow it only seems to fall, these cherry blossoms; for what purpose do they scatter that the wind should blow so?