桜散る水の面にはせきとむる
花のしがらみかくべかりけり
花のしがらみかくべかりけり
- Roma-ji
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Sakura chiru mizu no omo ni wa sekitomuru hana no shigarami kakubekarikeri
- English Translation
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Upon the water
where the cherry blossoms fall
I should have set
a weir of blossoms there
to hold them back from flowing
- Meaning
- On the water where the cherry blossoms fall, I should have set a weir of blossoms to keep them from flowing away.
- Commentary
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Book Two Spring Poems II 99
Headnote: "Composed on seeing cherry blossoms falling on a pond"
Composed on seeing cherry blossoms falling on a pond. On the water where the cherries fall, the poet says, one should have set a "weir of blossoms" to stop the petals from drifting away. Turning the weir that holds back a stream into something for keeping petals, the poem shows a love that grieves even for blossoms already fallen.
The author, "Priest Nōin," is Nōin, whose lay name was Tachibana no Nagayasu. After taking holy orders he lived at Kosobe in Settsu and traveled through the provinces composing poems. Known as a poet versed in famous places, he has a poem in the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu.
First line, "sakura chiru": cherry petals falling onto the pond.
Second line, "mizu no omo ni wa": "on the surface of the water." Poem 78 of this book, "ikemizu ni," likewise depicts blossoms falling on a pond.
Third line, "sekitomuru": "that dams the flow," modifying "shigarami" that follows.
Fourth line, "hana no shigarami": a "shigarami" is a weir of stakes woven with bamboo or brushwood to hold back a stream, here one for holding the petals. The next poem, 100, also depicts blossoms carried on water.
Fifth line, "kakubekarikeri": "kaku" is to set across, "bekari" expresses what ought to have been, and "keri" discovery: regret, realized only now, that one should have set it.
- Author
- Nōin
- Source
- Senzai Wakashu
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Yoso nite zo kikubekarikeru sakurabana me no mae nite mo chirashitsuru kana
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Yamakaze ni chiritsumu hana no nagarezu wa ikade shiramashi tani no shitamizu