Chiri chirazu hito mo tazunenu furusato no tsuyukeki hana ni harukaze zo fuku

English Translation

Fallen or not yet
and no one comes to see them
in the old village
over the flowers, dew-soaked
the wind of the spring blows on

Meaning

Whether they have fallen or not, no one comes to look; and over the dew-wet flowers of the old village the spring wind blows.

Commentary

Book One Spring Poems I 95

Headnote: on the theme of blossom in an old village.
The seventeenth poem in the run on cherry blossom. The topic was blossom at an old capital, and the scene is one in which flowers fall unseen because no one comes.
The poet, given as former Archbishop, is Jien; this is his second appearance in the book, after the thirty-third poem. A son of the Regent Fujiwara no Tadamichi, he served as abbot of the Tendai school.
The time is the fall of the cherry; the place is an old village to which no one comes.
The occasion was the set topic.

The first line pairs an affirmative with a negative to say that it is not known which is the case. With nobody looking, there is no telling.
The second line states the absence outright. It is the situation of Hachijoin no Takakura's fifty-fourth poem, and both the plum run and the cherry run close on flowers no one comes to see.
The third line names an old village, an old capital, the word that has run through this book, appearing here in the cherry run as well.
The adjective in the fourth line means wet with dew, and also inclined to tears, so that the wet flowers and the watcher's forlornness meet in one word.
An emphatic particle governs the verb at the close. The spring wind is what scatters blossom, and it stands last as the agent that will strip the flowers while nobody sees.

Author

Jien

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other