Hanazakari haru wa mi ni komu toshigiri mo sezu to iu tane wa oinu to ka kiku

English Translation

When the flowers are
at their height in spring I shall
come and look at them
for I hear that seed is up —
the seed that comes to no end

Meaning

When the flowers are at their height in spring I shall come and look at them, for I hear that the seed is up — the seed that comes to no end.

Commentary

120 The Plum That Bloomed at Last

The Chancellor Fujiwara no Tadahira had been a minister for a long while, but Fujiwara no Nakahira, known as the Minister of Biwa, was long in becoming one; and at the celebration when at last he did, Tadahira put a spray of plum in his hair and composed "Osoku toku tsui ni sakikeru ume no hana ta ga ueokishi tane ni ka aruramu". When an account of the day, with the poem, was written to the High Priestess of Ise, the Lady of the Bedchamber, a daughter of Fujiwara no Sadakata, added "Ikade kaku toshigiri mo senu tane mogana areyuku niwa no kage to tanomamu". Her wish was granted: Fujiwara no Saneyori began to visit her, and she was blessed with children and her house prospered. At that the High Priestess sent "Hanazakari haru wa mi ni komu toshigiri mo sezu to iu tane wa oinu to ka kiku". That is the whole of the section.
Fujiwara no Tadahira rose to Chancellor and appears in the ninety-seventh through ninety-ninth sections. Fujiwara no Nakahira, known as the lord of the Biwa mansion, exchanges poems with Toshiko about the oak in the sixty-eighth section; the two were brothers by the same mother. The Lady of the Bedchamber was a daughter of Fujiwara no Sadakata and appears as the Lady of Sanjō in the ninety-fourth through ninety-sixth sections. Fujiwara no Saneyori was Tadahira's son and sends her a poem in the ninety-sixth.
The setting is after the change in the Lady's fortunes: Saneyori had begun to visit her, she had children, and her house prospered.
What prompted the poem was that news. It was sent by the High Priestess to the Lady.
The section closes with it, having run from Tadahira's poem at the celebration, through the Lady's wish, to a poem of congratulation on its fulfilment. This poem was later included in the Gosen-shū.

The opening promises to come and see the flowers at their height in spring, the verb carrying the speaker's own intention. It takes the form of an engagement to visit.
The seed that comes to no end is taken over word for word from the Lady's poem.
The closing says she has heard that it is up, the grammar marking the news as received at second hand.
The Lady wished for a seed; the High Priestess answers that, hearing the seed has grown, she will come for the flowers. Wish, fulfilment and congratulation are tied together by the single run of words from seed to flower, and the three poems make one continuous line. The plum Tadahira put in his hair comes back here as flowers.

Source

Yamato Monogatari

Other