いつの間に散り果てぬらん桜花
面影にのみ色を見せつつ
面影にのみ色を見せつつ
- Roma-ji
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Itsu no ma ni chirihatenuran sakurabana omokage ni nomi iro o misetsutsu
- English Translation
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When did it happen
that you scattered all away,
O cherry blossoms,
showing me your color now
only as an image in my mind?
- Meaning
- When did you scatter away entirely, cherry blossoms? Now you show me your color only in the image left in my mind.
- Commentary
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Book Three Spring Poems III 132
Headnote: "On seeing the cherry blossoms fall."
Before he knew it the cherries had fallen completely, the poet says, and now they show their color only in the image in his mind. Grieving for the fallen flowers, he gazes on their form that still lingers within him.
According to the headnote, it was composed on seeing the cherry blossoms fall.
The poet, called "Mitsune," is Ōshikōchi no Mitsune. He was one of the compilers of the Kokin Wakashū, served as a minor official in Kai and Izumi provinces, and is counted among the Thirty-Six Immortal Poets.
The first line, "Itsu no ma ni," means "when did it happen," expressing surprise that the flowers fell unnoticed.
In the second line, "chirihatsu" means to fall completely, and "ran" conjectures a cause. The poem pauses here.
The third line, "sakurabana," is an address. The cherry poems of this book begin here to give way to poems of spring's end.
In the fourth line, "omokage" means an image in the mind: "only in that image now."
In the last line, "tsutsu" expresses continuation, and the trailing form leaves a lingering echo.
- Author
- Oshikochi no Mitsune
- Source
- Gosen Wakashu
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