散ると見て袖に受くれどたまらぬは
荒れたる浪の花にぞありける
荒れたる浪の花にぞありける
- Roma-ji
-
Chiru to mite sode ni ukuredo tamaranu wa aretaru nami no hana ni zo arikeru
- English Translation
-
Thinking them falling
blossoms, I caught them on my sleeve,
but they would not stay—
for they were only flowers
of the wild and raging waves
- Meaning
- Taking them for falling blossoms, I caught them on my sleeve, yet they would not stay: they were only the flowers of the raging waves.
- Commentary
-
Book Sixteen Miscellaneous Poems II 1147
Headnote: "By the seashore, when hail fell and I caught it on my sleeve and it melted away."
The poet says that what was caught on the sleeve as falling blossoms would not stay, for it was the flowers of the raging waves. Treating hail falling by the sea as scattering blossoms, the poet delights in the fancy that what melts on the sleeve is the white crest of the rough waves scattered like flowers.
According to the headnote, it was composed by the seashore when hail fell, was caught on the sleeve, and melted away.
The poet is listed as anonymous, and the composer's name has not come down to us.
The first line, "Chiru to mite," means "seeing them fall," treating the hail as scattering blossoms.
The second line, "sode ni ukuredo," means "though I caught them on my sleeve," with "do" adversative.
The third line, "tamaranu wa," means "what would not stay," with "tamara" echoing both staying and "tama," jewels, suggestive of hail.
The fourth line, "aretaru nami no," means "of the raging waves." The first line of the next poem also speaks of tossing waves, so poems of waves continue.
The last line, "hana ni zo arikeru," means "were flowers," with "nami no hana" the white crest of breaking waves. "Zo" is an emphatic binding particle closed by the attributive "keru."
- Author
- Unknown Poet
- Source
- Gosen Wakashu
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