時々の花は咲けども何すれぞ
母とふ花の咲き出来ずけむ
母とふ花の咲き出来ずけむ
- Roma-ji
-
Tokidoki no hana wa sakedomo nani sure zo haha tou hana no sakidekozukemu
- English Translation
-
Season by season
the flowers come into bloom,
yet why is it so
that the flower called mother
never once came out in bloom?
- Meaning
- The flowers of each season bloom in turn, so why did no flower called mother ever bloom for me?
- Commentary
-
Book Twenty Frontier Guard Poems 4323
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Poems of the frontier guards sent in rotation to the provinces of Tsukushi in the second month of Tenpyō Shōhō 7, year of the wood sheep."
The flowers of each season bloom, so why did no flower called mother ever bloom? Likening his mother to a flower, the guard laments that he cannot carry her on his journey. The feeling that he could pick her and take her along if only she were a flower is put in the form of a simple question. It is the third poem from Tōtōmi; another Tōtōmi poem wishes that father and mother were flowers to be carried in both hands, and the two share the same idea.
The author, Hasetsukabe no Mamaro, was a guard from Yamana District in Tōtōmi; nothing more is known of him.
The first line, "tokidoki no," means "of each season," pointing to flowers that bloom in turn.
The second line, "hana wa sakedomo," is concessive, "though flowers bloom," turning to the lament of the lower half.
The third line, "nani sure zo," means "why is it," with the interrogative zo, resolved by the attributive kemu at the close.
The fourth line, "haha tou hana no," uses tou, a contraction of to iu: "the flower called mother," a bold metaphor.
The closing line, "sakidekozukemu," uses kemu, conjecture about a past cause, ending with the question: why did it not come into bloom?
- Author
- Hasetsukabe no Mamaro
- Source
- Manyoshu
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