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.
- Meaning
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If this world were as constant as the blossoms that return each year, then even the past that has gone might come back once again.
- Commentary
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Book II, Spring Poems (Part Two)
Though blossoms seem fleeting as they fall, they bloom again each year in the same way. Reflecting on this, the poet suggests that what appears enduring in human life is in fact more transient, and that human existence itself may be the more fleeting and impermanent.
- Author
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Unknown Poet
- Source
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Kokin Wakashu
- Other
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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.
-
Though every spring
the blossoms reach their height,
as they always will,
to see them in full bloom—
that depends upon my life.
-
If one could command
the wind that blows as it will,
then I would say:
pass by this single tree,
and leave it untouched.
-
The one I awaited
does not come—so,
for that reason,
the blossom where the warbler perched
I have broken off.