High in the hills,
I only gazed as I passed,
those cherry blossoms;
the wind, it seems,
do as it pleases with them.
- Meaning
- Because the mountain was high, I could only gaze at the cherry blossoms as I passed, without taking them; yet the wind seems to do with them as it pleases.
- Commentary
-
Book II, Spring Poems (Part Two)
A poem composed after climbing Mount Hiei and returning.
While the poet could only look on from afar, the wind moves freely among the blossoms as it wishes—perhaps expressing a sense of envy toward the wind.
- Author
- Ki no Tsurayuki
- Source
- Kokin Wakashu
- Other
-
- 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?
- Is it spring rain that softly falls—or tears, for cherry blossoms, since there is no one who does not grieve their scattering?
- In the wake of winds that have scattered cherry blossoms, there remains— waves rising and surging in a sky without water.