Taga tani ka asu wa nokosamu yamazakura koborete nioe kyō no katami ni

English Translation

In whose valley, then
will any be left by dawn
you mountain cherries
spill down and glow while you can
as a keepsake of today

Meaning

Which valley will still have any tomorrow? Mountain cherries, spill and shine as you fall, and be the keepsake of this day.

Commentary

Book Two Spring Poems II 150

Headnote: composed on the day when the Ono-no-miya Chancellor viewed the blossom at Tsukinowa-dera.
On the day of a blossom-viewing, the poem grieves over the falling flowers and asks them to serve as a memento of the day. The Chancellor of the headnote is Fujiwara no Saneyori, known by his residence at Ono-no-miya; Tsukinowa-dera is a temple in the hills.
Kiyohara no Motosuke (908-990) was one of the thirty-six immortals of poetry and took part in compiling the Gosen Wakashu. He was the father of Sei Shonagon.
The time is when the cherries fall; the place is the hills around Tsukinowa-dera.
The occasion was his attendance at Saneyori's blossom-viewing.

An interrogative particle in the first line governs the auxiliary in the second: which valley? The assumption is that the flowers last differently from one valley to another.
The second line means: will keep any until tomorrow. The expectation is that by then there may be none.
The third line names the one addressed.
The fourth line is an imperative: spill and shine. The request is not that they should stay but that they should be beautiful in falling. Masatsune's hundred and forty-fifth poem asked the wind to let something glow a little longer; this one asks it of the flowers.
The word at the close names a thing kept in remembrance, used also in the hundred and forty-fourth poem. Grieving over the fall, the poem tries to keep the falling itself in memory.

Author

Kiyohara no Motosuke

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other