classic waka stream

梅の花散り乱ひたる岡びには
鴬鳴くも春かたまけて
Roma-ji

Ume no hana chirimagaitaru okabi ni wa uguisu naku mo haru katamakete

English Translation
Where the plum blossoms
are falling in a whirling mist
along the hillside,
there the warbler sings away,
now that spring has come at last
Meaning
Along the hillside where plum petals fall in a whirling tangle, the warbler is singing, for spring has come.
Commentary
Book Five Miscellaneous Poems 838

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Thirty-two poems on plum blossoms, with preface"
The poet describes a warbler singing, spring having come, on a hillside where plum petals scatter in confusion. Widening the view from the garden to the hills, he paints the height of spring in falling blossoms and birdsong.
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 "Secretary of Ōsumi Ka-shi Hachimaro"; the secretary was the fourth-ranking provincial official.
The poet, Kashi no Hachimaro, was an official serving as secretary of Ōsumi Province.

First line, "ume no hana": the banquet's theme.
Second line, "chirimagaitaru": "magau" means to mingle until indistinguishable, the petals falling in confusion.
Third line, "okabi ni wa": "okabi" is the area of a hill, widening the view beyond the garden.
Fourth line, "uguisu naku mo": "mo" exclaims; the same line appears in 824 and 842. The poem breaks here, in inversion with the last line.
Fifth line, "haru katamakete": "katamaku" means to await a season or for it to arrive: "spring having come."
Author
Kashi no Hachimaro
Source
Manyoshu
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