Yukamu hito komu hito shinobe harugasumi Tatsuta no yama no hatsuzakurabana

English Translation

You who are going
and you who come, remember
through the haze of spring
on the slopes of Tatsuta
the first of the cherry bloom

Meaning

You who are setting out and you who are coming this way, keep it in mind: the first cherry blossom on Tatsuta, where the spring haze rises.

Commentary

Book One Spring Poems I 85

Headnote: as in the preceding poem, topic unknown.
The seventh poem in the run on cherry blossom, and the first of several set at Tatsuta. It calls to those crossing the pass to keep the first blossom in mind. The original gives no fresh headnote.
The poet, given by his court title, is Otomo no Yakamochi; this is his second appearance in the book, after the twentieth poem.
The time is when the cherries first open; the place is Tatsuta on the border of Yamato and Kawachi, on the road linking the capital with Naniwa and much travelled.
The occasion of composition is not recorded.

The first two lines pair those about to go with those about to come, using the same auxiliary twice to take in everyone on the road.
The verb closing the second line is an imperative: keep it in mind. The poem is framed as an address to passers-by.
The third line leads by sound into the place name below, since the word for haze rising and the name of the mountain share the same sound.
The poem closes on a noun; the prefix means the first of the year.
Choosing a place of passage makes the addressee anyone at all. The poem is less a private feeling than a marker set beside a road.

Author

Otomo no Yakamochi

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other