Kamiyo ni wa ari mo ya shiken sakurabana kyō no kazashi ni oreru tameshi wa - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

神代にはありもやしけん桜花
今日のかざしに折れるためしは

Roma-ji: Kamiyo ni wa ari mo ya shiken sakurabana kyō no kazashi ni oreru tameshi wa
English Translation: In the age of gods
might it ever have been so—
cherry blossoms broken
to adorn a headdress
on a festival day like this?
Meaning: Was there ever such a precedent, even in the age of the gods—cherry blossoms broken off to adorn a headdress on this festival day?
Commentary: Book Sixteen Miscellaneous Poems I 1485

Headnote: "Written on a leaf given with the blossoms to the Lesser Captain serving as envoy, for his headdress, in a year when cherry blossoms remained unscattered until the day of the Fourth-Month Festival."
This is the third poem of the sequence on summer. The poet asks whether, even in the age of the gods, there was ever a precedent for breaking off cherry blossoms to adorn a headdress on this festival day. According to the headnote, in a year when cherry blossoms remained until the day of the festival in the fourth month, she wrote it on a leaf when the blossoms were given to the Lesser Captain serving as festival envoy for his headdress.
The author, "Murasaki Shikibu," was the daughter of Fujiwara no Tametoki. She became the wife of Fujiwara no Nobutaka and later served Jōtōmon'in. She is the author of The Tale of Genji.
The Fourth-Month Festival is the Kamo Festival, held at the Kamo Shrines on the middle Day of the Rooster in the fourth month. An imperial envoy such as a Lesser Captain of the Palace Guards was sent from the court, adorned with hollyhock in his headdress.

The first line, "kamiyo ni wa," refers to the age of the gods. In keeping with the festival of the Kamo deities, it invokes the age of the gods.
The second line, "ari mo ya shiken," closes the kakari-musubi of the particle "ya" with the attributive form "ken," meaning "might it have been?" The poem breaks after the second line.
The third line, "sakurabana," presents the cherry blossoms that remained until the summer festival.
In the fourth line, "kyō no kazashi ni," "kazashi" refers to the flowers or leaves the festival envoy wears in his headdress. It shows the rarity of adding lingering cherry blossoms to a headdress usually of hollyhock.
The last line, "oreru tameshi wa," is inverted, placing the object of the second line's question at the end. Following the change of dress in the preceding poems, it sings of the overlapping of seasons, late-spring cherry lingering on the day of the fourth-month festival.
Author: Murasaki Shikibu
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
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