Though there is nothing
that can be held and kept,
how fleeting it is—
that with each falling blossom
my heart is drawn along.

Meaning

Though there is nothing that can truly be held and kept, still my heart is drawn after each fleeting blossom as it falls.

Commentary

Book II, Spring Poems (Part Two)

A poem composed upon seeing women returning from gathering blossoms on the last day of the third month.

Though the flowers they have picked will soon scatter and cannot be kept, they are nonetheless drawn to them. The poem reflects on this futile yet irresistible pull of the heart.

Author

Oshikochi no Mitsune

Source

Kokin Wakashu

Other

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?
Soaked through with rain, I forced myself to break them— for within the year, how many days of spring can there truly be?
Even when one does not think that spring ends today, still— how can one easily rise from beneath the blossoms’ shade?

Though there is nothing that can be held and kept, how fleeting it is— that with each falling blossom my heart is drawn along.

Though there is nothing
that can be held and kept,
how fleeting it is—
that with each falling blossom
my heart is drawn along.