Spring wind,
pass by the blossoms
and blow elsewhere;
then shall I see
whether they fade of their own accord.
- Meaning
- Spring wind, pass by the blossoms and blow elsewhere; then I will see whether they fade of their own accord.
- Commentary
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Book II, Spring Poems (Part Two)
A poem composed upon seeing cherry blossoms fall at the Crown Prince’s guard post.
Watching the blossoms scatter in the wind, the poet imagines how long they might remain if the wind did not blow, and composes the poem with this conceit in mind.
- Author
- Fujiwara no Yoshikaze
- Source
- Kokin Wakashu
- Other
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- 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.
- Even as snow it only seems to fall, these cherry blossoms; for what purpose do they scatter that the wind should blow so?
- High in the hills, I only gazed as I passed, those cherry blossoms; the wind, it seems, do as it pleases with them.