Hana mite wa itodo ieji zo isogarenu matsuran to omou hito shi nakereba

English Translation

Having seen blossoms,
all the less I hurry home
along the homeward road—
for no one is there whom I think
would be waiting for my return.

Meaning

Having seen the blossoms, I feel even less inclined to hurry home—for there is no one now whom I can imagine waiting for me there.

Commentary

Book Eight Lament Poems 765

Headnote: "On seeing the blossoms at Hōkongōin in the spring after the death of Lord Kinmori's mother."
This is the seventh poem of the sequence on partings by death in spring. It says that even after seeing the blossoms, the poet feels all the less inclined to hurry home, since there is no one he can imagine waiting for him. According to the headnote, it was composed on seeing the blossoms at Hōkongōin in the spring after the death of Lord Kinmori's mother.
The son of Minister of the Right Fujiwara no Kin'yoshi, the author rose to Minister of the Left and was called the Later Tokudaiji Minister of the Left to distinguish him from his grandfather Saneyoshi, the Tokudaiji Minister of the Left. He was a nephew of Fujiwara no Shunzei. "Lord Kinmori" is the author's son Fujiwara no Kinmori, whose mother was the author's wife.
The scene is the spring after the death of Lord Kinmori's mother, set at Hōkongōin.
The direct occasion is seeing the blossoms at Hōkongōin.
Hōkongōin is a temple in Hanazono in Kyoto, founded in Daiji 5 (1130) at the wish of Taikenmon'in.

The first line, "hana mite wa," means "when I have seen the blossoms." It sets the scene of the way home after viewing the blossoms.
In the second line, "itodo ieji zo," "itodo" means "all the more." "Zo" is an emphatic binding particle, completed by "isogarenu" in the third line.
In the third line, "isogarenu," "re" is spontaneous and "nu" is the attributive form of the negative "zu," meaning "I do not feel like hurrying." It takes the attributive form as the completion of "zo," and the poem pauses after the third line.
The fourth line, "matsuran to omou," has eight syllables, one more than the norm. It means "whom I think would be waiting at home," and it modifies "hito" in the last line.
In the last line, "hito shi nakereba," "shi" is an emphatic particle, giving the reason: "since there is no such person." The upper and lower verses are inverted, placing the reason for not hurrying home at the end. The homeward road, on which one would hurry to tell of the lovely blossoms, loses its reason for haste through the absence of his wife. Where the preceding poem contrasted those leaving for the capital with the poet left in the mountain village, here there is no one waiting at the very home to which he should return.

Author

Fujiwara no Sanesada

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other