みわたせば柳桜をこきまぜて
宮こぞ春の錦なりける
宮こぞ春の錦なりける
- Roma-ji
-
Miwataseba yanagi sakura o kokimazete
miyako zo haru no nishiki narikeru - English Translation
-
When I look afar,
willow and cherry intermix—
the capital,
behold, becomes in this spring
brocade of the season.
- Meaning
- When I look far across the capital, where the green of willows and the crimson of cherry blossoms are intermingled, I see that the capital itself is the brocade of spring.
- Commentary
-
Spring Songs, Book One
A poem composed while gazing over the capital at the height of the cherry blossoms.
Though one often hears of the autumn brocade of crimson leaves upon the hills, here the poet realizes that the capital, with willows and cherry blossoms intermingled, is the true brocade of spring.
- Author
- Sosei Hoshi
- Source
- Kokin Wakashu
- Other
-
- Would that there were no rushing, stone-splashing stream— O cherry blossoms, I would pluck you and come back for the one who has not seen.
- Can I only look and speak of it to others, O cherry blossoms? I will pluck you in my hand and take you home as gift.
- In color and scent, just as in the days of old, bloom the cherry flowers; yet the one who lives through years has changed and grown anew.
- Who was it sought and plucked, I wonder, spring haze— rising to hide the mountain’s cherry blossoms?