Tsugeyaran ma ni mo chirinaba sakurabana itsuwaribito ni ware ya narinan - Shui Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

告げやらん間にも散りなば桜花
いつはり人に我やなりなん

Roma-ji: Tsugeyaran ma ni mo chirinaba sakurabana itsuwaribito ni ware ya narinan
English Translation: If, while I send word,
even then you scatter down,
O cherry blossoms,
shall I then become someone
who is nothing but a liar?
Meaning: If you scatter even as I send word that you are in bloom, cherry blossoms, will I not become a liar?
Commentary: Book One Spring Poems 58

Headnote: "Topic unknown"
If the cherry blossoms fall even while a messenger is on the way to tell someone they are in bloom, the poet will have become a liar; so the poem frets over how easily the flowers scatter. It draws the flowers' fleetingness into the familiar matter of keeping one's word to others.

First line, "tsugeyaran," means intending to send word.
Second line, "ma ni mo chirinaba," with "naba," the irrealis of the completion auxiliary "nu" plus "ba," sets up the hypothesis "if they should fall."
Third line, "sakurabana," stands as the one addressed.
Fourth line, "itsuwaribito ni," means "into a liar."
Final line, "ware ya narinan," closes "ya" with "nan," fretting "shall I become a liar?"
Author: Unknown Poet
Source: Shui Wakashu
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