空蝉の世にもにたるか花ざくら
さくと見しまにかつちりにけり
さくと見しまにかつちりにけり
- Roma-ji
-
Utsusemi no yo ni mo nitaru ka hanazakura
saku to mishi ma ni katsu chirinikeri - English Translation
-
Is it like this fleeting world—
cherry blossoms in bloom?
Even as I looked,
they had already begun to fall,
and were gone.
- Meaning
- Cherry blossoms in bloom seem much like this fleeting world. Just as I watched them begin to flower, they had already scattered and were gone.
- Commentary
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Book II, Spring Poems (Part Two)
The poem overlays the transience of human life with the fleeting scattering of cherry blossoms.
Perhaps the poet had something personal weighing on the heart, as the tone carries a sense of quiet lament.
Utsusemi refers to the living body, derived from utsushimi, and is associated with meanings such as “world,” “body,” “life,” and “person.” By assigning the characters for a cicada’s empty shell, it came to express the fleeting nature of this world.
- Author
- Unknown Poet
- Source
- Kokin Wakashu
- Other
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- Leaving nothing behind, they fall—how admirable, cherry blossoms; for in this world, if things were to remain, their end would turn unpleasant.
- In this village, I may pass the night on my journey; cherry blossoms— in the confusion of their falling, I forget the road home.
- Cherry blossoms— if you must fall, then fall; though you do not fall, no one from my old home comes here to see you.
- Where blossoms fall, of cherry trees—in spring, it is as though snow keeps on falling, and will not easily melt away.