白雲と見えつるものを桜花
今日は散るとや色ことになる
今日は散るとや色ことになる
- Roma-ji
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Shirakumo to mietsuru mono o sakurabana kyō wa chiru to ya iro koto ni naru
- English Translation
-
I took them for white
clouds, and so they seemed, and yet,
O cherry blossoms,
is it because today you fall
that your color looks so changed?
- Meaning
- They looked like white clouds until now—yet, cherry blossoms, is it because you fall today that your color seems so different?
- Commentary
-
Book Three Spring Poems III 119
Headnote: "On seeing mountain cherries."
The mountain cherries had looked like white clouds, yet today, because they are falling, their color seems to have changed. The poem captures the shift from full bloom, mistaken for clouds, to the moment of falling as a change of color.
According to the headnote, it was composed on seeing mountain cherries.
The poet, called "Tsurayuki," is Ki no Tsurayuki. A son of Ki no Mochiyuki, he was the leading compiler of the Kokin Wakashū and wrote its kana preface. He served as governor of Tosa among other posts, is known as the author of the Tosa Diary, and is counted among the Thirty-Six Immortal Poets.
The first line, "Shirakumo to," takes up the likening to white clouds in the two preceding poems. With this poem the sequence of white clouds that began at 117 comes to a close.
In the second line, "tsuru" is perfective and "mono o" adversative: "though they had seemed white clouds."
The third line, "sakurabana," is an address to the mountain cherries.
In the fourth line, "ya" is an interrogative particle forming a kakarimusubi pattern with the attributive "naru" in the last line.
In the last line, "koto ni" means "differently," showing that the color of the falling blossoms now looks unlike white clouds.
- Author
- Ki no Tsurayuki
- Source
- Gosen Wakashu
- Prev Poem
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Yamazakura sakinuru toki wa tsune yori mo mine no shirakumo tachimasarikeri
- Next Poem
-
Waga yado no kage to mo tanomu fuji no hana tachiyoriku tomo nami ni oraru na