There are written in a difficult and obscure style. It is not possible to focus on one interpretation to the exclusion of the alternative readings.
“Secret fragrance” is the more lucid of the two pieces. The blossom, which is explicitly mentioned in the third line, is not used as a metaphor for the woman but as an object that brings back memories
of her to the speakers. Throughout the whole piece, the experiencing subject (the lyrics speaker) and the experienced object (the blossom) remain distant, and the former is the agent that ties everything together.
The strong personal tone of “Secret Fragrance”disappears in “Dappled Shadows.” The lyric speaker has given way to the plum blossom in becoming the integrative force in this work. There is a multilayered symbolic framework centered on the material object in “Dappled Shadows.” If “Secret Fragrance” is concerned with reminiscing of reminiscence of a woman from the perspective of the lyric speaker, “Dappled Shadows” is focused on the experience of seclusion and loneliness that find a symbolic embodiment in the plum blossom.