白雪のところも分かず降りしけば
いはほにも咲く花とこそ見れ
いはほにも咲く花とこそ見れ
- Roma-ji
-
Shirayuki no tokoro mo wakazu furishikeba
iwao ni mo saku hana to koso mire - English Translation
-
white snow falling down
without choosing where it lies—
covering all alike
even upon the rocky crags
it seems that flowers bloom there
- Meaning
- White snow falls, covering all without distinction—even upon the rocky crags, it appears as though flowers are blooming.
- Commentary
-
Book Six Winter Poems
This poem was composed while crossing the mountains of Shiga.
The beautifully fallen snow is likened to blossoms. Not only trees and grasses, but even great rocks are covered, and the snow upon them is seen not as fallen petals, but as flowers in bloom, celebrating the quiet beauty of winter.
- Author
- Ki no Akimine
- Source
- Kokin Wakashu
- Other
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- at my humble dwelling snow falls thick and deep, and now no path can be seen— for there is no one at all to come and tread a way here
- when the snow falls down the grasses and hidden things that lie through winter— bear blossoms never seen in the coming days of springtime
- on fair Yoshino the mountain snow must be piled— for in the old capital the cold grows ever deeper more than it was before
- near the seashore the falling snow drifts down— and it appears as though white waves might overpass now Sue no Matsuyama