花よりも人こそあだになりにけれ
いづれをさきに恋ひむとか見し
いづれをさきに恋ひむとか見し
- Roma-ji
-
Hana yori mo hito koso ada ni narinikere
izure o saki ni koimu to ka mishi - English Translation
-
More than the blossoms,
People have proved more fickle—
So it has become.
Which would I see first to fade,
And then long for in my heart?
- Meaning
- More than the blossoms, people themselves have proven more fleeting. Who could have thought we would lose a beloved person before the flowers and then long for them?
- Commentary
-
109. People Are More Fickle
A certain man composed this poem and sent it to a friend who had lost his beloved wife.
The poem expresses the thought that he could never have imagined that a beloved person would be lost even before the cherry blossoms scatter.
By placing side by side the death of a person and the scattering blossoms, the poem reveals the impermanence of life in this world.
It is included in the "Laments" section of the Kokinshū as a poem by Ki no Mochiyuki.
- Source
- Ise Monogatari
- Other
-
- When the wind blows on, Is it like a rock always Crossed by rising waves? My sleeves of my robe Have no time at all to dry.
- Each evening again In the fields where many frogs Are crying aloud, The water only grows more— Though no rain at all may fall.
- My longing so deep, Perhaps my soul has gone forth Out from my own body. If late at night you should see it, Bind my soul and hold it fast.
- Long ago perhaps Such a thing may have been said— Only now I know: To love someone unseen yet, One whom I have never met.