竜田山見つつ越え来し桜花
散りか過ぎなむ我が帰るとに
散りか過ぎなむ我が帰るとに
- Roma-ji
-
Tatsutayama mitsutsu koekoshi sakurabana chiri ka suginamu waga kaeru to ni
- English Translation
-
On Tatsuta's hill
I gazed at them as I crossed,
the cherry blossoms;
will they scatter and be gone
by the time I journey home?
- Meaning
- The cherry blossoms I gazed at as I crossed Mount Tatsuta, will they have scattered and passed by the time I return?
- Commentary
-
Book Twenty Miscellaneous Poems 4395
Headnote: "A poem lamenting alone the cherry blossoms of Mount Tatsuta."
Will the cherry blossoms I saw crossing Mount Tatsuta have scattered by the time I return? The poem regrets, from afar, the flowers on the road home. The left note says it is the first of three poems composed by Ōtomo no Yakamochi, Junior Assistant Minister of Military Affairs, on the seventeenth day of the second month. While staying at Naniwa to inspect the guards, he thinks of the cherries of Mount Tatsuta he crossed on the way.
The author, Ōtomo no Yakamochi, son of Ōtomo no Tabito, was at this time Junior Assistant Minister of Military Affairs.
The first line, "Tatsutayama," names the mountain on the border of Yamato and Kawachi, on the road from Nara to Naniwa.
The second line, "mitsutsu koekoshi," "that I gazed at as I crossed," recalls the blossoms seen on the way out.
The third line, "sakurabana," the cherry blossoms of Tatsuta, is the theme of the poem.
The fourth line, "chiri ka suginamu," uses the interrogative ka, resolved by the attributive mu, worrying that they will have scattered.
The closing line, "waga kaeru to ni," uses to ni, thought to mean "at the time," adding by inversion: when I go home.
- Author
- Otomo no Yakamochi
- Source
- Manyoshu
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