Oi ga yo ni yado ni sakura o utsushiuete nao kokoromi ni hana o matsu kana - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

老いが世に宿に桜を移し植ゑて
なほ試みに花を待つかな

Roma-ji: Oi ga yo ni yado ni sakura o utsushiuete nao kokoromi ni hana o matsu kana
English Translation: In my aging years
I have moved a cherry tree
and set it by my house,
and still, as if to test it,
I wait to see its blossoms
Meaning: In the last years of my old age I have moved a cherry tree into my garden, and still, as if to test my fate, I wait for its blossoms.
Commentary: Book Seventeen Miscellaneous Poems II 1075

Headnote: "Composed when I planted a cherry tree at my house"
This poem was composed when he planted a cherry tree at his house. In my aging years I have moved a cherry to my garden, and still, as if to test it, I wait for its blossoms, he says. Though little time remains to him, he plants a cherry at his home and waits for its flowers as if testing whether he will live until they bloom. In this figure who keeps waiting for the blossoms despite the loneliness of age, there is a faint humor and a poignancy.
The author, "Minamoto no Morinori Ason," was a poet of the late Heian period whose biography is not known in detail.
It shares with the opening poem, 1052, which asks when the springs to come may be seen by one aware of age, the feeling of an old man for the blossoms. The poems on blossoms that have continued from the opening of the book end with this one.

First line, "oi ga yo ni": "in the remaining years of my old age."
Second line, "yado ni sakura o": "a cherry tree at my house."
Third line, "utsushiuete": "having moved it from elsewhere and planted it." It has six syllables, one too many.
Fourth line, "nao kokoromi ni": "still, as a test," as if testing whether he will live until the flowers bloom.
Fifth line, "hana o matsu kana": "kana" is an exclamatory final particle. It shares "hana o matsu" with "hana o matsu koso" in the second line of the next poem, 1076.
Author: Minamoto no Morinori
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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