Though every spring
the blossoms reach their height,
as they always will,
to see them in full bloom—
that depends upon my life.
- Meaning
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Though each spring the blossoms surely come into their full bloom, to behold that sight depends upon my being alive.
- Commentary
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Book II, Spring Poems (Part Two)
Though spring returns again and again and flowers bloom in their glory, the joy of seeing them comes only with life itself—thus expressing a keen awareness of one’s own mortality.
Spring comes repeatedly, yet a human life gradually declines. Perhaps the poet felt the approach of age, illness, or death.
- Author
-
Unknown Poet
- Source
-
Kokin Wakashu
- Other
-
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Come, today,
let us mingle
in the springtime hills;
even if evening falls,
will there not be blossoms’ shade?
-
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.
-
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.
-
If one could command
the wind that blows as it will,
then I would say:
pass by this single tree,
and leave it untouched.