Since there are no blooms
left for it to hold with song,
the warbler too,
in the end, it seems,
has grown weary of its cry.
- Meaning
-
Since there are no blossoms left to hold back by its song, the warbler too seems, in the end, to have grown weary of crying out.
- Commentary
-
Book II, Spring Poems (Part Two)
A poem composed when the warbler’s song had not been heard for some time in the third month.
The warbler’s song is taken as an attempt to stay the falling blossoms; once they are all gone, it has no reason to sing, and so seems to fall silent, as if weary.
- Author
-
Ki no Tsurayuki
- Source
-
Kokin Wakashu
- Other
-
-
With kindred hearts,
in the springtime hills,
together we would roam,
and, with no place in mind,
spend the night along the way.
-
Since spring has come,
time and months have passed away
like arrows shot forth—
so it seems to me,
how swiftly they have gone.
-
Following upstream
the drifting of fallen blossoms
along the water,
I found that in the mountains
spring itself had come to an end.
-
Cease not your song,
cry on, O warbler—
for in a single year,
shall there come again
another spring like this?