Miyoshino no Yoshino no yama no sakurabana shirakumo to nomi miemagaitsutsu - Gosen Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

み吉野の吉野の山の桜花
白雲とのみ見えまがひつつ

Roma-ji: Miyoshino no Yoshino no yama no sakurabana shirakumo to nomi miemagaitsutsu
English Translation: In fair Yoshino,
on the hills of Yoshino,
the cherry blossoms
appear as nothing but white clouds,
so hard to tell apart
Meaning: In fair Yoshino, the cherry blossoms on the Yoshino hills look like nothing but white clouds, impossible to tell apart.
Commentary: Book Three Spring Poems III 117

Headnote: "A man who had a mind to become a monk went to Yamato and stayed a long time; when an acquaintance wrote asking how he had been these months and whether the flowers had bloomed, he replied."
The poet answers that the cherries of the Yoshino hills look like nothing but white clouds. To the question of whether the flowers had bloomed, he conveys a fullness of bloom that can be mistaken for clouds.
According to the headnote, a man intending to take holy orders went down to Yamato and stayed long; an acquaintance then wrote asking how he was faring and whether the flowers had bloomed, and this was his answer. Yoshino was thought of as a place where those who left the world lived, and in seeing the flowers only as white clouds one may also sense a mind removed from worldly flower-viewing.
The poet is listed as "anonymous," and the composer's name has not come down to us.

In the first line, "mi" is an honorific prefix, naming Yoshino in Yamato Province.
The second line, "Yoshino no yama no," repeats the place name of the first line to give the poem its rhythm.
The third line, "sakurabana," names the cherries of the Yoshino hills, answering the question in the headnote whether the flowers had bloomed.
The fourth line, "shirakumo to nomi," likens the cherries to white clouds. The next poems, 118 and 119, also pair mountain cherries with white clouds, so the three form a sequence.
In the last line, "magau" means to blend so as to be indistinguishable, and "tsutsu" shows continuation. The trailing form leaves a lingering echo.
Author: Unknown Poet
Source: Gosen Wakashu
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