こづたへばおのがはかぜにちる花を
たれにおほせてここらなくらむ
たれにおほせてここらなくらむ
- Roma-ji
-
Kozutaeba ono ga hakaze ni chiru hana o
tare ni ōsete kokora nakuramu - English Translation
-
As it flits from branch
to branch, by its own wing-wind
blossoms fall away;
whom does it blame, I wonder,
that it cries out so?
- Meaning
- As the warbler moves from branch to branch, scattering blossoms with the wind of its own wings, whom does it blame that it cries out so?
- Commentary
-
Book II, Spring Poems (Part Two)
A poem composed on the song of the warbler.
The warbler’s cry is often taken as lamenting the falling blossoms; yet here, the poet notes that it is the bird itself that causes them to fall, and wonders at whom it directs its complaint, perhaps with a touch of gentle humor.
- Author
- Sosei Hoshi
- Source
- Kokin Wakashu
- Other
-
- If falling blossoms could be stayed by weeping, then surely I would not yield to the warbler’s cry.
- Is it for the grief of blossoms falling away that it sounds so? In spring haze on Tatsuta Mountain, the warbler’s voice is heard.
- To no avail, it cries out again and again— the warbler’s voice; for these blossoms do not fall only in this one year.
- Let us rein our steeds, and go forth to see— in my old home, blossoms must be falling as though they were snow.