Inishie wa chiru o ya hito no oshimiken hana koso ima wa mukashi kourashi - Shui Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

いにしへは散るをや人の惜しみけん
花こそ今は昔恋ふらし

Roma-ji: Inishie wa chiru o ya hito no oshimiken hana koso ima wa mukashi kourashi
English Translation: In the days gone by,
did people grieve, I wonder,
when the blossoms fell?
Now it seems it is the flowers
that are longing for the past.
Meaning: In days gone by, I suppose, people grieved when the blossoms fell. Now it seems it is the blossoms that long for those days gone by.
Commentary: Book Twenty Lament Poems 1279

Headnote: "When, after Middle Counselor Atsutada had passed away, people went to view the blossoms at his mountain retreat at Nishisakamoto on Mount Hiei"
The poet says that in the past people must have grieved at the falling blossoms, but now it seems the blossoms long for the past. The headnote shows it was composed when, after Fujiwara no Atsutada's death, people went to view the blossoms at his mountain retreat at Nishisakamoto on Mount Hiei. Seeing the blossoms of a retreat that has lost its master seem to yearn for the days when people grieved their falling, he reverses the roles of people and flowers to remember the dead. Atsutada died in Tengyō 6 (943).
The author, written as "Ichijō Regent," is Fujiwara no Koretada. The eldest son of Fujiwara no Morosuke, he rose to Regent and Chancellor. He served as head of the Poetry Office when the Gosenshū was compiled and is known for his poem "aware tomo" in the Hyakunin Isshu.
The author's name in the main text, "Ichijō Sesshukai," is taken as a miswriting of "Ichijō Sesshō," Ichijō Regent, and corrected.

First line, "inishie wa," means "in days gone by," when Atsutada was alive.
Second line, "chiru o ya hito no," means "people, the falling blossoms," with the binding particle "ya" expressing a question resolved by the attributive "ken" in the third line.
Third line, "oshimiken," means "did they grieve," with "ken" the auxiliary of past conjecture. The poem breaks after this third line.
Fourth line, "hana koso ima wa," means "now it is the blossoms," setting "now" against "inishie" in the first line and "blossoms" against "people" in the second.
Final line, "mukashi kourashi," means "seem to long for the past," with "rashi" expressing a grounded inference.
Author: Fujiwara no Koretada
Source: Shui Wakashu
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