あだなりとなにこそたてれ桜花
年にまれなる人もまちけり
年にまれなる人もまちけり
- Roma-ji
-
Ada nari to na ni koso tatere sakurabana
toshi ni mare naru hito mo machikeri - English Translation
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Why call it fickle, the cherry blossoms?
They, too, waited for one who comes but rarely in a year.
- Meaning
- Though cherry blossoms are called fickle for falling so swiftly, even they were waiting for you, who come but rarely in a year.
- Commentary
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Spring Songs, Book One
A poem composed when someone who had not visited for a long time came during the height of the cherry blossoms.
According to , this poem is attributed to a woman who had a relationship with . It may be a pointed reproach, couched in the image of cherry blossoms, toward Narihira, who visited her only rarely.
- Author
- Unknown Poet
- Source
- Kokin Wakashu
- Other
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- On Mount Yoshino’s slopes the cherry blossoms bloom— so white that I mistook them only for snow.
- O cherry blossoms, in a year when spring days abound, will you not let the human heart be sated?
- Had you not come today, tomorrow it would have fallen as snow; Even if it did not vanish, could it be seen as a flower?
- Once they have fallen, though one yearns, there is no avail; So today, if I am to pluck the cherry blossoms, let me pluck them.