Ko no ma yori chirikuru hana o azusayumi e ya wa todomenu haru no katami ni - Shui Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

木の間より散り来る花を梓弓
えやはとどめぬ春の形見に

Roma-ji: Ko no ma yori chirikuru hana o azusayumi e ya wa todomenu haru no katami ni
English Translation: Blossoms that come falling
from between the trees, could they
not be held, as one draws
a catalpa bow, to keep
as a keepsake of the spring?
Meaning: Could we not hold back the blossoms falling from between the trees, as one draws a catalpa bow, and keep them as a keepsake of the spring?
Commentary: Book Sixteen Miscellaneous Spring Poems 1062

Headnote: "When the Teiji Retired Emperor visited the Kyōgoku Consort, watched an archery contest and had prizes brought out, she stripped blossoms into a bearded basket, made a cherry branch into a perch, bound mountain sedge into the shape of a bush warbler, set it there, and attached this poem"
The poet asks whether the blossoms falling from between the trees could not be held back, as one draws a catalpa bow, as a keepsake of spring. The headnote shows that when Retired Emperor Uda visited the Kyōgoku Consort, watched an archery contest and had prizes brought out, she stripped blossoms into a bearded basket, made a cherry branch into a perch, bound mountain sedge into the shape of a bush warbler and set it there, attaching this poem. Working the catalpa bow into the poem for the archery contest, she presents the prize with blossoms held in a basket as a keepsake of the departing spring.
The author, written as "Ichijō no Kimi," was a lady-in-waiting known as Lady Ichijō, of whom little is known.

First line, "ko no ma yori," means "from between the trees."
Second line, "chirikuru hana o," means "the blossoms that come scattering," speaking of the blossoms stripped into the bearded basket of the headnote.
Third line, "azusayumi," a bow of catalpa wood, is set here for the archery contest of the headnote and suggests holding back the blossoms as one "draws" a bow. It is the same word as the third line of 1029 in this book.
Fourth line, "e ya wa todomenu," means "could they not be held back? surely they can," with "e ... nu" expressing impossibility and "ya wa" rhetorical.
Final line, "haru no katami ni," means "as a keepsake of spring," giving in inverted order the purpose of the fourth line.
Author: Lady Ichijō
Source: Shui Wakashu
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