Kozo sakishi hisagi ima saku itazura ni tsuchi ni ka ochimu miru hito nashi ni

去年咲きし久木今咲くいたづらに
地にか落ちむ見る人なしに

Roma-ji: Kozo sakishi hisagi ima saku itazura ni tsuchi ni ka ochimu miru hito nashi ni
English Translation: Blooming as last year,
now the hisagi blooms again—
idly, all in vain,
will it fall upon the ground
with no one there to see it?
Meaning: The hisagi that bloomed last year is blooming now. Will its flowers fall to the ground in vain, with no one to see them?
Commentary: Book Ten Spring Miscellaneous Poems 1863

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "On Flowers"
This poem grieves that the hisagi blossoms, blooming this year as they did last year, will fall unseen by anyone. Within the recurrence of last year and this year, the flower that blooms unchanged is set against the loneliness of having no one to see it. One may also read in it the sorrow that the person who viewed the flowers together last year is no longer here. The ending "with no one to see" also appears in 1867, and the motif of mourning unseen flowers recurs in the flower group.

In the first line, "kozo sakishi," "shi" is the attributive form of the past auxiliary "ki," recalling last year's flowers.
In the second line, "the hisagi blooms now," the hisagi is thought to be a tree such as the Japanese mallotus. "Ima saku" sets last year and this year side by side, and the poem breaks here.
The third line, "itazura ni," means in vain, a word regretting flowers that fall unheeded.
In the fourth line, "tsuchi ni ka ochimu," "ka" is an interrogative particle in kakari-musubi with the attributive "mu," worrying over where the falling flowers will go.
The last line, "with no one to see them," gives at the end, by inversion, the reason for the flowers' loneliness.
Source: Manyoshu
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