咲く花もをそろはいとはしおくてなる
長き心になほしかずけり
長き心になほしかずけり
- Roma-ji
-
Saku hana mo osoro wa itowashi okute naru nagaki kokoro ni nao shikazukeri
- English Translation
-
Among the flowers too,
the hasty bloomers do not please;
the late-blooming kind,
with its long and lasting heart,
cannot be matched, after all
- Meaning
- Among flowers, too, the hasty early bloomers do not please me; nothing, after all, can match the lasting heart of the late-blooming bush clover.
- Commentary
-
Book Eight Autumn Miscellaneous Poems 1548
Headnote: "A poem on late bush clover by Lady Ōtomo no Sakanoue"
The poet praises the late-blooming bush clover, saying that among flowers the hasty early bloomers do not please her, and nothing can match the lasting heart of the clover that blooms late. Likening the way flowers bloom to the human heart, she values a heart that endures patiently over one that shifts lightly.
The author, Lady Ōtomo no Sakanoue, was a daughter of Ōtomo no Yasumaro and a half-sister of Ōtomo no Tabito. She was the aunt of Ōtomo no Yakamochi and later also his mother-in-law, and she left many poems in the Man'yōshū.
The first line, "the flowers that bloom too," refers to flowers in general.
In the second line, "osoro" means rashness, here the flowers that bloom early; she states that they do not please her, and the poem pauses here.
The third line, "the late-blooming," points to the "late bush clover" of the headnote.
The fourth line, "to the long, lasting heart," likens the late clover to a faithful human heart.
The final line, with the emphatic "shi," negative "zu," and exclamatory "keri," concludes that nothing can match it after all. Osada no Hirotsu no Otome's 1652 in this book ends with the same line, praising that nothing matches tonight's plum blossoms.
- Author
- Lady Ōtomo no Sakanoue
- Source
- Manyoshu
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