Soaked through with rain,
I forced myself to break them—
for within the year,
how many days of spring
can there truly be?

Meaning

Though drenched in the rain, I forced myself to pluck them—for within a year, how many days of spring can there truly be?

Commentary

Book II, Spring Poems (Part Two)

A poem sent with wisteria blossoms plucked in the rain on the last day of the third month.

Though one would normally wait for the rain to cease, the poet gathers them despite being soaked, knowing that spring will soon end and the blossoms will be gone.

Author

Ariwara no Narihira

Source

Kokin Wakashu

Other

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.
Even when one does not think that spring ends today, still— how can one easily rise from beneath the blossoms’ shade?
At my dwelling, the wisteria waves by the pond have bloomed; when will the mountain cuckoo come and sing?

Soaked through with rain, I forced myself to break them— for within the year, how many days of spring can there truly be?

Soaked through with rain,
I forced myself to break them—
for within the year,
how many days of spring
can there truly be?