花の色は雪にまじりて見えずとも
香をだににほえ人のしるべく
香をだににほえ人のしるべく
- Roma-ji
-
Hana no iro wa yuki ni majirite miezu tomo
ka o dani nioe hito no shirubeku - English Translation
-
though the hue of flowers
blends with snow and cannot be seen
still let their fragrance
drift and softly make them known
so that people may perceive
- Meaning
- Though the color of the blossoms is lost, mingled with the snow, at least let their fragrance drift forth, so that people may know them.
- Commentary
-
Book Six Winter Poems
This poem was composed on seeing snow piled upon plum blossoms.
Because the white of the blossoms and the white of the falling snow are the same, they cannot easily be distinguished; yet the poet expresses, with slight exaggeration, the excellence of the blossoms’ fragrance, which can still make them known.
- Author
- Ono no Takamura
- Source
- Kokin Wakashu
- Other
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- before it melts away fall yet again, pile ever deep— O drifting spring haze, if once you rise into the sky such snow will seldom meet my eyes
- plum blossoms or not they cannot be told apart now— from the distant sky thick-clouding snow falls everywhere covering all in equal white
- if the scent of plum mingled with the fallen snow resting on the ground— who then could clearly discern and pluck each one apart
- when the snow falls down on every tree flowers seem to bloom— upon each single one which of them is truly plum how could I discern and pluck