Osoku toku tsui ni sakinuru ume no hana ta ga ueokishi tane ni ka aruran - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

遅く疾くつひに咲きぬる梅の花
誰が植ゑ置きし種にかあるらん

Roma-ji: Osoku toku tsui ni sakinuru ume no hana ta ga ueokishi tane ni ka aruran
English Translation: Whether late or soon,
it has blossomed out at last,
this flowering plum—
by whose hand, I wonder, then,
was the seed of it once sown?
Meaning: Late or early, the plum has bloomed at last—whose hand, I wonder, planted the seed from which it grew?
Commentary: Book Sixteen Miscellaneous Poems I 1443

Headnote: "Breaking off a branch of plum, on the occasion of the celebration when the Biwa Minister of the Left became a minister."
This is the third poem of the sequence on the warbler and the plum. Whether late or early, the plum has bloomed at last, and the poet asks who planted its seed. According to the headnote, it was composed with a broken-off plum branch on the occasion of the Biwa Minister of the Left's appointment as minister.
The author, "Teishinkō," is Fujiwara no Tadahira. The son of Regent Fujiwara no Mototsune, he served in turn as Regent, Chancellor, and Grand Minister. Teishinkō is the name conferred on him after his death.
The "Biwa Minister of the Left" of the headnote is Fujiwara no Nakahira. He was Tadahira's elder brother and rose to minister later than his younger brother. He is so called because he lived at the Biwa mansion.

The first line, "osoku toku," refers to the difference between late and early. It overlays the timing of the plum's blooming with the fact that the elder brother Nakahira became minister later than the younger Tadahira.
The second line, "tsui ni sakinuru," uses "nuru," the attributive form of the perfective "nu," to show that it has bloomed at last. Nakahira's rise to minister is likened to the plum's blossoming.
The third line, "ume no hana," is the same line as the third line of the preceding poem, carrying on the chain of poems on the plum.
The fourth line, "ta ga ueokishi," asks who planted the tree, implicitly pointing to Mototsune, the brothers' father.
The last line, "tane ni ka aruran," closes the kakari-musubi of the particle "ka" with the attributive form "ran." Likening their descent from the same father to a "seed," though they differ in timing, the poem congratulates the elder brother.
Author: Fujiwara no Tadahira
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
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