Yamazato no haru no yūgure kite mireba iriai no kane ni hana zo chirikeru

English Translation

At a mountain house
come to see the spring evening
I find that the bell
of the sunset hour is rung
and the flowers are falling

Meaning

Coming to a mountain village at evening in spring, I find the flowers falling to the sound of the sunset bell.

Commentary

Book Two Spring Poems II 116

Headnote: composed on going to a mountain village.
The poem was written on an actual visit to a village in the hills, and joins the sound of the evening bell to the falling of the blossom.
The Monk Noin (988-?), whose lay name was Tachibana no Nagayasu, took orders and travelled through the provinces. He left a study of the famous poetic sites, and many stories about his journeys and his verse survive.
The time is a spring evening; the place is a mountain village.
The occasion was the journey there.

The first two lines give place and hour. Takatoki's eightieth poem in Book One also waits for blossom at a mountain village; such villages belong with flowers.
The third line means: coming and looking for myself.
The word in the fourth line names the hour of sunset, and the bell rung at temples then. The particle marks the time, and carries the sense of falling in answer to the bell.
An emphatic particle governs the attributive form at the close. There is no causal link between the bell and the fall, but setting them together makes the sound seem to bring the petals down. Hearing and sight are laid over one hour.
Evening and a temple bell are also a figure for impermanence, and joined to falling blossom the colour deepens.

Author

The Monk Noin

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other