花ならでただ柴の戸をさして思ふ
心の奥もみよしのの山
心の奥もみよしのの山
- Roma-ji
-
Hana narade tada shiba no to o sashite omou kokoro no oku mo miyoshino no yama
- English Translation
-
Not for the blossoms,
but to close my brushwood door
is all my resolve—
see the depths of my heart too,
O mountain of Yoshino.
- Meaning
- Not for the blossoms, but only to shut my brushwood door and dwell apart have I set my heart—see its depths as well, O mountain of Yoshino.
- Commentary
-
Book Seventeen Miscellaneous Poems II 1618
Headnote: "When I presented a set of fifty poems."
This is the first poem of a sequence on retreating into the mountains of Yoshino. The poet calls on Mount Yoshino to see the depth of his heart, set not on the blossoms but only on shutting his brushwood door. According to the headnote, it was composed when he presented a set of fifty poems.
The author, "Saki no Daisōjō Jien," was a son of Regent Fujiwara no Tadamichi and a younger brother of Kujō Kanezane. He served four times as Tendai Abbot and wrote the historical treatise Gukanshō.
Mount Yoshino in Yamato Province is famed for its cherry blossoms, and is also sung as a mountain in which one withdraws from the world.
The first line, "hana narade," means "not for the blossoms." It begins by deliberately denying the cherry blossoms that Yoshino first brings to mind.
The second line, "tada shiba no to o," means "only the brushwood door." A brushwood door, roughly made of twigs, stands for a recluse's dwelling.
The third line, "sashite omou," pivots on "sashi," both "shutting" a door and "aiming toward." It is hypermetric, with six syllables.
The fourth line, "kokoro no oku mo," means "even the depths of my heart." The depths of the mountain are overlaid with the depths of the heart.
The last line, "miyoshino no yama," pivots on "mi," "see!" and "Miyoshino," the honorific name of Yoshino. It closes by making Yoshino a mountain asked to see a heart set on seclusion, not one visited for its blossoms.
- Author
- Jien
- Source
- Shin Kokin Wakashu
- Prev Poem
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Haru aki mo shiranu tokiwa no yamazato wa sumu hito sae ya omogawari senu
- Next Poem
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Yoshinoyama yagate ideji to omou mi o hana chirinaba to hito ya matsuran