When the season comes
round, it puts on the same hue
and blooms as before—
even the cherry of a house
where one branch has withered off
- Meaning
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When the season comes round it blooms in the same color as before—even the cherry of a house where one branch has withered away.
- Commentary
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Part Two: Kashiwagi
After Kashiwagi's death Yugiri began calling often at the Ichijo residence, using as his excuse the charge his friend had laid on him. There lived Kashiwagi's widow, the Fallen Leaf Princess, and her mother, the Ichijo lady. Yugiri met the mother first, and they spoke together of the man who was gone. Seeing the cherry in the garden flowering as it always had, he spoke this poem. She answered him, and as his visits went on his feeling shifted toward the Princess herself.
"When the season comes round" is the return of the time of year. "Puts on the same hue and blooms" is the tree doing what it always does, set against what has happened to the people. "One branch has withered off" figures the Princess, who has lost her husband. One tree is made to hold both what does not change and what has been lost. As a call of condolence it keeps its measure, and it is meant to hearten the one left behind.
- Author
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Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
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Genji Monogatari
- Other
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