Wa ga sono ni ume no hana chiru hisakata no ame yori yuki no nagarekuru kamo

我が園に梅の花散るひさかたの
天より雪の流れ来るかも

Roma-ji: Wa ga sono ni ume no hana chiru hisakata no ame yori yuki no nagarekuru kamo
English Translation: In my garden here
the plum blossoms are falling —
from the far heavens
is it snow that comes flowing,
drifting all the way down?
Meaning: In my garden the plum blossoms are falling. Could it be snow flowing down from the distant heavens?
Commentary: Book Five Miscellaneous Poems 822

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Thirty-two poems on plum blossoms, with preface"
The poet likens the plum blossoms falling in his garden to snow flowing down from the sky. Seeing plum blossoms as snow follows Chinese poetry, and as host he praises the beauty of his garden plums by expanding them into a vast vision of heaven. It is the best known of the banquet poems.
This is one of the thirty-two poems of the Plum Blossom Banquet, held on the thirteenth day of the first month of Tenpyō 2, when officials of Dazaifu and provincial governors of Kyushu gathered at the residence of the Governor-General Ōtomo no Tabito and composed poems on the plum trees in his garden. The Chinese preface describes how, in the auspicious first month of early spring, the air was fine and the breeze gentle, the plums opened white like face powder before a mirror, and the orchids gave off a scent like a perfume sachet; it is also famous as the source of the era name Reiwa. The preface closes by proposing that, just as Chinese poetry has its pieces on falling plum blossoms, the company should compose short poems on the garden plums. The poem is signed "the host," that is, Ōtomo no Tabito, who held the banquet.
The poet, Ōtomo no Tabito, was the son of the Major Counselor Ōtomo no Yasumaro and the father of Ōtomo no Yakamochi. Late in the Jinki era he went down to Tsukushi as Governor-General of Dazaifu, returned to the capital in Tenpyō 2 as Major Counselor, and died the following year. Versed in Chinese letters and Daoist thought, he formed a literary circle at Dazaifu with Yamanoue no Okura and others, known as the Tsukushi poetic circle.

First line, "wa ga sono ni": the garden of his own residence where the banquet is held, spoken as host.
Second line, "ume no hana chiru": the poem breaks here, first stating plainly the falling petals before him.
Third line, "hisakata no": a pillow word for heaven.
Fourth line, "ame yori yuki no": the falling petals are seen as snow from the sky. The next poem, 823, takes up this conceit, asking where the plums are falling when snow is falling on the castle hill.
Fifth line, "nagarekuru kamo": "nagaru" describes snow and the like drifting down from the sky, and "kamo" exclaims, closing in wonder at blossoms mistaken for snow.
Author: Ōtomo no Tabito
Source: Manyoshu
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