よそに見てかへらむ人にふぢの花
はひまつれよえだはをるとも
はひまつれよえだはをるとも
- Roma-ji
-
Yoso ni mite kaeramu hito ni fuji no hana
haimatsure yo eda wa oru tomo - English Translation
-
Wisteria blooms,
cling to those who merely gaze
and then turn away;
even if your tender branches
should break in the doing.
- Meaning
- O wisteria blossoms, cling to those who only look from afar and then depart—even if your branches should break in the doing.
- Commentary
-
Book II, Spring Poems (Part Two)
A poem sent after women returning from Shiga stopped at Hanayama Temple to see the wisteria blossoms and then left without greeting the resident priest.
Rather than outright reproach, it carries a tone of amused exasperation. The idea of blossoms clinging to the visitors, even at the cost of breaking their branches, adds a touch of wit and humor.
- Author
- Sojo Henjo
- Source
- Kokin Wakashu
- Other
-
- Having found lodging by the springtime hills, as I slept that night, even within my dreams blossoms were falling.
- If there were no wind to blow, nor valley streams to carry them, how could we ever see the blossoms hidden deep in the hills?
- At my dwelling, waves of wisteria bloom; people turn back, unable to pass them by, and linger only to gaze.
- Do they even now bloom in radiant beauty, as once they did— the kerria blossoms at Tachibana’s isle-bound cape?