Ikukaeri sakichiru hana o nagametsutsu monoomoi kurasu haru ni auran - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

幾かへり咲き散る花をながめつつ
物思ひ暮らす春に逢ふらん

Roma-ji: Ikukaeri sakichiru hana o nagametsutsu monoomoi kurasu haru ni auran
English Translation: How many times now
must I, watching blossoms bloom
and fall, lost in thought,
spend my days in brooding, meet
with yet another spring like this?
Meaning: How many times must I meet a spring like this, gazing in reverie at blossoms that bloom and fall, and passing my days in brooding?
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems I 1017

Headnote: "Sent toward the end of spring to a woman he had courted for years, who even so had never grown close."
This is the second poem of the sequence on love sung through spring blossoms. Gazing at blossoms that bloom and fall, how many springs of brooding must he meet, the poet laments over years that have borne no fruit. According to the headnote, he sent it toward the end of spring to a woman he had courted for years who still kept her distance.
The author, "Yoshinobu Ason," is Ōnakatomi no Yoshinobu, a son of Ōnakatomi no Yorimoto, Vice-Minister of Divinities and chief priest of the Ise Shrine. He too became chief priest, and as one of the Five Men of the Pear Chamber he took part in compiling the Gosen Wakashū and in reading the Man'yōshū. He is one of the Thirty-Six Poetic Immortals.

The first line, "ikukaeri," means "how many times," showing spring after spring repeated.
The second line, "sakichiru hana o," means "blossoms blooming and falling," showing the spring that returns each year and the years that pass without result.
The third line, "nagametsutsu," means gazing while lost in thought, with "tsutsu" marking repetition and continuation.
The fourth line, "monoomoi kurasu," means "passing the days in brooding."
In the last line, "ran" conjectures about the present: how many such springs must I meet? Where Motosuke's preceding poem grieved over a single spring, this one laments springs repeated many times, so the two poems treat the same spring blossoms on the scale of one season and of many years.
Author: Onakatomi no Yoshinobu
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
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