Following upstream
the drifting of fallen blossoms
along the water,
I found that in the mountains
spring itself had come to an end.
- Meaning
-
Tracing the drifting blossoms upstream, I came in search of them, only to find that in the mountains even spring itself had already passed.
- Commentary
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Book II, Spring Poems (Part Two)
A poem composed when crossing the mountains near the end of the third month, upon seeing fallen blossoms flowing in a mountain stream.
Seeing blossoms drifting in the stream, the poet assumes there must still be flowers remaining upstream and ventures deeper into the mountains, only to find that even the signs of spring have already disappeared, expressing the passing of the season.
- Author
-
Fukayabu
- Source
-
Kokin Wakashu
- Other
-
-
Since spring has come,
time and months have passed away
like arrows shot forth—
so it seems to me,
how swiftly they have gone.
-
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.
-
Cease not your song,
cry on, O warbler—
for in a single year,
shall there come again
another spring like this?
-
Though there is nothing
that can be held and kept,
how fleeting it is—
that with each falling blossom
my heart is drawn along.