Chirinokoru hana mo ya aru to uchimurete miyamagakure o tazunete shi kana

English Translation

Is there any bloom
left unfallen? Let us go
in a company
and look for it where it hides
deep in the folds of the hills

Meaning

Might there be flowers left unfallen? I should like us to go together and look for them, hidden away deep in the hills.

Commentary

Book Two Spring Poems II 167

Headnote: sent to Sanekata toward the end of spring.
A run of poems grieving over the end of spring begins here. This one invites a friend to go into the deep hills after flowers that have not yet fallen. The headnote records that it was sent to Fujiwara no Sanekata, himself a poet represented in Book Nine of this anthology.
The poet is Fujiwara no Michinobu (972-994), a son of Fujiwara no Tamemitsu, who died at twenty-three. He is counted among the later thirty-six immortals of poetry.
The time is the end of spring; the place is the deep hills the poem imagines.
The occasion was the sending of the poem to Sanekata.

An interrogative particle in the second line asks whether any are left. The possibility of unfallen flowers is raised.
The third line means in company, together; the prefix is merely rhythmic. Going with a friend rather than alone recalls the companions of Ietaka's eighty-second poem in Book One.
The fourth line means the hidden depths of the hills. The reasoning behind it is that flowers will survive where no one goes.
The particle at the close expresses a wish: I should like to do so. Ryozen's hundred and fifty-third poem went out and found the flowers gone; this one is still at the stage before setting out. Going into the hills after flowers that remain also recalls Saigyo's eighty-sixth poem in Book One, on seeking blossom on a side not yet seen.

Author

Fujiwara no Michinobu

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other