in winter’s seclusion
never had I thought such a sight—
through these trees before me
as though they were blossoms
snow falls down in full display
- Meaning
- In the time of winter seclusion, I never expected it—yet through the trees before me, snow falls as though it were blossoms.
- Commentary
-
Book Six Winter Poems
This poem was composed upon seeing snow settled on trees.
Winter seclusion is a time when plants seem to cease their growth, and yet what appears as blossoms falling—something that should not be—turns out to be snow. The poem likens snow to flowers, expressing the beauty of white snow falling against the dark backdrop of winter.
- Author
- Ki no Tsurayuki
- Source
- Kokin Wakashu
- Other
-
- snow falling deep on a road where no one comes or passes at all— is it for that very reason that even my thoughts fade away
- though it is winter from the sky flowers scatter down— is it that beyond those clouds, far out of sight, spring has already come to be
- at break of morning as though it were the lingering moon of the dawn-lit sky— in Yoshino village falls a deep white snow all around
- before it melts away fall yet again, pile ever deep— O drifting spring haze, if once you rise into the sky such snow will seldom meet my eyes