定めなくあだに散りぬる花よりは
常磐の松の色をやは見ぬ
常磐の松の色をやは見ぬ
- Roma-ji
-
Sadamenaku ada ni chirinuru hana yori wa tokiwa no matsu no iro o ya wa minu
- English Translation
-
Rather than flowers
that scatter, fickle and unsure,
with no constancy,
why do you not look upon
the evergreen pine's color
- Meaning
- Rather than flowers that scatter fickly, with nothing certain about them, why do you not look to the unchanging color of the evergreen pine?
- Commentary
-
Book Nine Love Poems I 596
Headnote: "A woman he had stopped visiting became the subject of rumors with another man, so he sent this."
The poet asks why she does not look to the unchanging color of the evergreen pine rather than to flowers that scatter fickly, with nothing certain about them. Likening the woman he had stopped visiting, now rumored with another man, to inconstant flowers, and himself, with his unchanging heart, to the pine, he reproaches her.
According to the headnote, he sent it because a woman he had stopped visiting became the subject of rumors with another man. The next poem is her reply, and the two form a pair of exchanged poems.
The poet, Minamoto no Saneakira, was a son of Minamoto no Kintada. Known for exchanging love poems with Nakatsukasa, he is one of the Thirty-Six Poetic Immortals.
The first line, "Sadamenaku," means "with nothing certain."
The second line, "ada ni chirinuru," means "that scatter fickly," a figure for the woman's inconstancy.
The third line, "hana yori wa," means "rather than the flowers."
The fourth line, "tokiwa no matsu no," means "of the evergreen pine whose green never changes," a figure for his own constant heart. "Matsu yori hoka no" in the fourth line of the next poem takes this up.
In the last line, "ya wa" is rhetorical: "why do you not look to its color?"
- Author
- Minamoto no Saneakira
- Source
- Gosen Wakashu
- Prev Poem
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Wabishisa o onaji kokoro to kiku kara ni waga mi o sutete kimi zo kanashiki
- Next Poem
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Sumiyoshi no waga mi nariseba toshi fu tomo matsu yori hoka no iro o mimashi ya