なきとむる花しなければうぐひすも
はては物うくなりぬべらなり
はては物うくなりぬべらなり
- Roma-ji
-
Nakitomuru hana shi nakereba uguisu mo
hate wa monouku narinu beranari - English Translation
-
Since there are no blooms
left for it to hold with song,
the warbler too,
in the end, it seems,
has grown weary of its cry.
- Meaning
- Since there are no blossoms left to hold back by its song, the warbler too seems, in the end, to have grown weary of crying out.
- Commentary
-
Book II, Spring Poems (Part Two)
A poem composed when the warbler’s song had not been heard for some time in the third month.
The warbler’s song is taken as an attempt to stay the falling blossoms; once they are all gone, it has no reason to sing, and so seems to fall silent, as if weary.
- Author
- Ki no Tsurayuki
- Source
- Kokin Wakashu
- Other
-
- With kindred hearts, in the springtime hills, together we would roam, and, with no place in mind, spend the night along the way.
- Since spring has come, time and months have passed away like arrows shot forth— so it seems to me, how swiftly they have gone.
- Following upstream the drifting of fallen blossoms along the water, I found that in the mountains spring itself had come to an end.
- Cease not your song, cry on, O warbler— for in a single year, shall there come again another spring like this?