雪とのみふるだにあるをさくら花
いかにちれとか風の吹くらむ
いかにちれとか風の吹くらむ
- Roma-ji
-
Yuki to nomi furu dani aru o sakurabana
ika ni chire to ka kaze no fukuramu - English Translation
-
Even as snow
it only seems to fall,
these cherry blossoms;
for what purpose do they scatter
that the wind should blow so?
- Meaning
- Even when they fall gently like snow, it is already too sorrowful—why then does the wind blow, as if urging the cherry blossoms to scatter?
- Commentary
-
Book II, Spring Poems (Part Two)
A poem composed upon seeing cherry blossoms fall.
Watching the blossoms scatter in the wind, the poet feels that even their quiet, snow-like falling without wind would be regretful enough, and thus questions why the wind must blow at all.
- Author
- Oshikochi no Mitsune
- Source
- Kokin Wakashu
- Other
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- In the gentle light of a calm spring day— why is it so? Without a tranquil heart, the blossoms fall away.
- Spring wind, pass by the blossoms and blow elsewhere; then shall I see whether they fade of their own accord.
- High in the hills, I only gazed as I passed, those cherry blossoms; the wind, it seems, do as it pleases with them.
- Is it spring rain that softly falls—or tears, for cherry blossoms, since there is no one who does not grieve their scattering?