Ume chirasu kaze mo koete ya fukitsuramu kaoreru yuki no sode ni midaruru

English Translation

The wind that scatters
the plum, has it too come through
and blown across here
for this fragrant snow of mine
falls in disorder on sleeves

Meaning

Has the wind that scatters the plum come over the hedge to blow here? This snow that falls in confusion on my sleeve carries a fragrance.

Commentary

Book One Spring Poems I 50

Headnote: composed on the theme of snow falling on clothes in the second month.
The poem closes the run on plum. Because the snow scattering on a sleeve carries the scent of plum, the speaker supposes that the wind which stripped the tree has reached this far. The assigned topic was snow of the second month falling on clothes.
The poet, known as the mother of Prince Yasusuke, was a daughter of Ise no Taifu; her father was Takashina no Nariyori.
The time is the second month, in falling snow; no place is given.
The occasion was the set topic.

The first line modifies the wind as the one that scatters plum. A tree not yet visible is put in place by that phrase alone.
The verb in the second line means to come over a hedge or a hill. An interrogative particle follows and governs the auxiliary at the close.
The third line joins a perfect auxiliary to one of present conjecture: it must have blown this way.
The fourth line is the poem's point. Snow does not smell; the scent belongs to petals mixed in with it, or has been carried by the wind and taken up by the snow. Calling the snow fragrant states, in two words, that snow and blossom can no longer be told apart.
The poem ends on an attributive form describing the scattering across a sleeve. The device of treating snow and plum as indistinguishable, running since the twenty-eighth poem, is here resolved through the sense of smell, which makes a fitting close to the run.

Author

The Mother of Prince Yasusuke

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other