Fushite omoi okite nagamuru harusame ni hana no shitahimo ika ni tokuramu

English Translation

Lying down I think
and rising I gaze at it
the rain of the spring
and how are they loosening
the flowers' hidden cords now

Meaning

I lie down and think of it, I get up and watch it, this spring rain; and how are the flowers' inner cords being untied?

Commentary

Book One Spring Poems I 84

Headnote: topic unknown.
The sixth poem in the run on cherry blossom, on the anxiety about what the buds are doing while the rain goes on. The headnote gives no topic and nothing is known of the circumstances.
The poet is recorded only as unknown.
The time is the season of spring rain; no place is given.
The occasion of composition is not recorded.

The first two lines pair two actions, lying down to think and rising to look, and by pairing them give a whole restless day.
The third line sets the scene under the rain. As in Gyokei's sixty-fourth poem, long rain and long brooding occupy the same ground.
The word in the fourth line names the cord tied beneath the clothes. In poetry its coming undone stands for feelings reaching their object or for what is hidden showing itself; here the opening of a bud is likened to it.
The auxiliary at the close expresses present conjecture: how are they coming undone now? The poem reasons toward a change inside a bud that cannot be seen.
A phrase belonging to love poetry is turned on flowers, and the waiting comes to resemble the waiting of a lover.

Author

Unknown Poet

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

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