classic waka stream

神垣の三室の山は春来てぞ
花の白木綿かけて見えける
Roma-ji

Kamigaki no Mimuro no yama wa haru kite zo hana no shirayū kakete miekeru

English Translation
On the sacred hill,
Mimuro of the god's fence,
now that spring has come,
the blossoms hang like offerings
of pure white mulberry cloth
Meaning
On the sacred Mount Mimuro, now that spring has come, the cherry blossoms look as if white mulberry-cloth offerings had been hung across it.
Commentary
Book One Spring Poems I 58

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Composed as a poem on blossoms when presenting a hundred-poem sequence to Retired Emperor Sutoku"
Continuing the "blossoms" poems of the hundred-poem sequence presented to Retired Emperor Sutoku, this poem says that when spring comes to sacred Mount Mimuro, cherries bloom everywhere, looking as though white mulberry-cloth offerings for the god had been hung all over the mountain. Likening white cherries to the white cloth of Shinto rites, it depicts a pure spring scene befitting a holy mountain.
The author, "Fujiwara no Kiyosuke Ason," is Fujiwara no Kiyosuke, son of Master of the Western Capital Fujiwara no Akisuke. He brought the poetic scholarship of the Rokujō Fujiwara house to maturity and wrote treatises such as Fukuro Zōshi and Ōgishō.

First line, "kamigaki no": "kamigaki" is the fence around a shrine, used as a pillow word introducing "Mimuro," where a god dwells.
Second line, "Mimuro no yama wa": Mount Mimuro is a poetic place in Yamato, held to be the dwelling of a god. 2 in this book depicts the same mountain.
Third line, "haru kite zo": "zo" links with "keru" in the last line. The same line "haru kite zo" appears in 9 of this book, sharing the idea of spring's arrival transforming a mountain.
Fourth line, "hana no shirayū": "shirayū" is white cloth woven from paper-mulberry fibers and used in Shinto rites; the white cherries are likened to it.
Fifth line, "kakete miekeru": "it looks as though hung with it," with "keru" closing the construction begun by "zo."
Author
Fujiwara no Kiyosuke
Source
Senzai Wakashu
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