Shiite yuku hito o todomemu sakurabana izure o michi to madou made chire - Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

強ひて行く人をとどめむ桜花
いづれを道と惑ふまで散れ

Roma-ji: Shiite yuku hito o todomemu sakurabana izure o michi to madou made chire
English Translation: I would hold back one
who insists on going;
O cherry blossoms,
scatter till he cannot tell
which way the road may run.
Meaning: I want to stop the one who insists on leaving. Cherry blossoms, fall so thickly that he cannot tell which path is the road!
Commentary: Book Eight Parting Poems 403

Headnote: "Topic unknown"
To hold back someone determined to leave, the poet commands the cherry blossoms to scatter until the road can no longer be made out. With the splendid fancy of hiding the path beneath fallen petals, the poem expresses reluctance to part.
The author is listed as "anonymous," and the name has not come down to us.

The first line, "one who insists on going," means going by force, showing the attitude of one who would shake off every attempt to detain him.
The second line, "I would hold back," uses the volitional mu to resolve to detain him, and the poem breaks after this line. It shares its words with the last line of the preceding poem, "to keep you here," forming a series on holding people back.
The third line, "O cherry blossoms," is the one addressed, chosen as the means of detaining the traveler. It corresponds to poem 394 in this book, which wished that the traveler would stop, lost amid the whirling cherry blossoms.
The fourth line, "which way the road may run," means which path to take as the road, describing how hard it is to make out a road covered in blossoms.
The last line, "scatter till he cannot tell," ends with the imperative chire, firmly commanding the cherries to fall until he loses his way.
Author: Unknown Poet
Source: Kokin Wakashu
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