In the wake of winds
that have scattered cherry blossoms,
there remains—
waves rising and surging
in a sky without water.
- Meaning
-
In the aftermath of the wind that has scattered the cherry blossoms, waves seem to rise in the waterless sky.
- Commentary
-
Book II, Spring Poems (Part Two)
A poem composed for a poetry contest at Teishiin on the thirteenth day of the third month in the thirteenth year of Engi.
The petals scattered by the wind and filling the sky are likened to waves rising in the air, as though the sky itself were water.
- Author
-
Ki no Tsurayuki
- Source
-
Kokin Wakashu
- Other
-
-
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?
-
Though it has become
a former capital—Nara,
and even in the new capital,
their color unchanged,
the blossoms bloom as ever.
-
Though the hues of flowers
are veiled in haze
and cannot be seen,
at least their fragrance—steal it for me,
O spring mountain wind.