Fumeba oshi fumade wa yukamu kata mo nashi kokorozukushi no yamazakura kana - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

踏めば惜し踏までは行かむ方もなし
心尽くしの山桜かな

Roma-ji: Fumeba oshi fumade wa yukamu kata mo nashi kokorozukushi no yamazakura kana
English Translation: To tread is a shame,
yet if I do not tread here
there is no way through:
how you wear my heart away,
O cherries of the mountain
Meaning: It is a pity to tread on them, yet there is no way forward without treading on them. How these mountain cherries wear my heart out with worry!
Commentary: Book Two Spring Poems II 83

Headnote: "Composed on the topic 'Fallen Blossoms Fill the Mountain Path'"
Composed on the topic "Fallen Blossoms Fill the Mountain Path." The whole path is carpeted with petals; it would be a pity to tread on them, yet there is no way forward without doing so. The poet hesitates and laments the mountain cherries as things that "wear the heart out," troubling people even after they have fallen. Her feeling for blossoms that steal the heart in bloom and stop the feet when fallen is expressed in frank phrasing with a pause after the opening line.
The author, "Akazome Emon of Jōtōmon'in," is Akazome Emon, daughter of Akazome no Tokimochi and wife of the scholar Ōe no Masahira. She served Fujiwara no Shōshi (Jōtōmon'in), consort of Emperor Ichijō, and a poem of hers appears in the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu.

First line, "fumeba oshi": "to tread is a pity," ending firmly with the adjective's final form. The poem pauses here.
Second line, "fumade wa yukamu": "without treading, could I go on," using the negative conjunctive "de" and the conjectural "mu."
Third line, "kata mo nashi": "there is no way," another pause. Between the first line and the second and third, both treading and not treading are rejected, conveying a heart at a standstill.
Fourth line, "kokorozukushi no": "that make me worry endlessly and exhaust my heart."
Fifth line, "yamazakura kana": "kana" is an exclamatory particle. Where the preceding poem, 82, showed blossoms falling from the sky, this one shows blossoms lying scattered on the ground.
Author: Akazome Emon
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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