How long, I wonder,
shall my heart wander,
drawn to the spring fields?
If the blossoms did not fall,
I could spend a thousand years here.
- Meaning
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How long will my heart be drawn out to the spring fields? If only the blossoms did not fall, I could remain so for a thousand years.
- Commentary
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Book II, Spring Poems (Part Two)
A poem composed on the theme of spring.
As beautiful blossoms bloom one after another and then scatter, the heart finds no rest. If only they did not fall, one could continue to long for them without end—thus expressing a deep love for blossoms.
- Author
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Sosei Hoshi
- Source
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Kokin Wakashu
- Other
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Why does it so
conceal Mount Miwa—
spring haze?
Are there blossoms blooming there,
unseen by human eyes?
-
Come, today,
let us mingle
in the springtime hills;
even if evening falls,
will there not be blossoms’ shade?
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Though every spring
the blossoms reach their height,
as they always will,
to see them in full bloom—
that depends upon my life.
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If, like the blossoms,
the world were ever constant,
as they return each year,
then even what has passed away
might come again once more.