Harusame wa itaku na furi so sakurabana mada minu hito ni chiramaku mo oshi

English Translation

Rain of the spring, do
not come down so hard as this
for the cherry flowers
would be a loss to scatter
before those who have not seen

Meaning

Spring rain, do not fall so hard: it would be a pity for the cherry to scatter before those who have not yet seen it.

Commentary

Book Two Spring Poems II 110

Headnote: topic unknown.
The fourth poem on falling blossom. Where the previous poem gave its regret to a warbler, this one commands the rain directly. The headnote gives no topic and nothing is known of the circumstances.
This is Akahito's second appearance in this book, after the hundred and fourth poem.
The time is rain in the cherry season; no place is given.
The occasion of composition is not recorded.

The first two lines use a prohibitive construction: do not fall so hard. The adverb means excessively.
The third line names what is to be protected.
The fourth line means for the sake of those who have not yet seen. That the regret is felt on another's behalf is the poem's distinction; it is the feeling of Tsurayuki's fourteenth poem in Book One, where herbs were gathered for someone who could not go out to the fields.
The form in the closing line turns the verb into a noun by an old suffix: the fact that they would scatter. The poem ends flatly on the adjective for regret, stating the feeling outright.
Commanding the rain is an order that can have no effect. In the nineteenth poem of Book One the snow told a person to see it as blossom; here a person gives orders to the weather, and the direction is reversed.

Author

Yamabe no Akahito

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other