Until their color
and their scent have passed to you,
this spring at least, do
not go away from this house
where the flowers are in bloom

Meaning

Until their color and their scent have passed to you, do not, this spring, go away from this house where the flowers are in bloom.

Commentary

Part One: Umegae

　This is Genji's answer to the Prince. He then passed the cup to Kashiwagi, who made his own poem before passing it on to Yugiri; for one who takes the cup must make a poem, and the whole sequence of that evening grows out of the rule.

　"Until their color and their scent have passed" is: until the flowers have dyed you through. Where the Prince said his heart was already dyed, Genji answers with the word for passing over. Speaking of scent clinging to a robe, he asks his guest to stay long enough for the place to sink into him. "The house where the flowers bloom" is the Rokujo estate; "karezu," not leaving, sounds also "not withering." The Prince had said a thousand years might pass; then stay, Genji replies, at least for this spring—an answer with nothing wanting in it. His thanks to the man who served as judge become, in the same breath, a host's courtesy.

Author

Murasaki Shikibu

Source

Genji Monogatari

Other

Until their color and their scent have passed to you, this spring at least, do not go away from this house where the flowers are in bloom

Until their color
and their scent have passed to you,
this spring at least, do
not go away from this house
where the flowers are in bloom