Yo no naka ni taete sakura no sakazaraba haru no kokoro wa nodokekaramashi - Tosa Nikki(English Translation & Meaning)

世の中に絕えて櫻のさかざらは
春のこゝろはのどけからまし

Roma-ji: Yo no naka ni taete sakura no sakazaraba haru no kokoro wa nodokekaramashi
English Translation: If in this world there
were no cherry trees at all,
then in the springtime
how calm and untroubled would
the hearts of all people be
Meaning: If there were no cherry blossoms in this world at all, how peaceful our hearts would be in spring.
Commentary: 48 The Ninth Day of the Second Month: Nagisa-no-in and a Mother's Lament

On the ninth day of the second month, impatient, they began towing the boat upstream before dawn, but the water was low and they could only creep forward little by little. At a place called the fork of the Wada anchorage, when people begged for rice and fish, they gave some. As they went on towing the boat upstream, they passed a place called Nagisa-no-in. Seen with the past in mind it was a charming spot; on the hill behind stood pine trees, and in the inner garden plum blossoms were in bloom.
Nagisa-no-in was the site of a villa of Prince Koretaka, in present-day Hirakata City, Osaka Prefecture. Prince Koretaka was the eldest son of Emperor Montoku and was on close terms with Ariwara no Narihira and others. Ariwara no Narihira was a poet of the early Heian period and one of the Six Poetic Immortals.
As people remarked that this was a place famous long ago, where the late Middle Captain Ariwara no Narihira, attending the late Prince Koretaka, had composed a poem, this poem was recalled.
Taking it up, a person of present-day refinement composed a poem suited to the place, "Chiyo hetaru matsu ni wa aredo inishie no koe no samusa wa kawarazarikeri," and then a certain person composed "Kimi koite yo o furu yado no ume no hana mukashi no ka ni zo nao nioikeru."
This poem is included in the first book of spring poems of the Kokin Wakashū. It also appears in episode 82 of The Tales of Ise, in a scene where Prince Koretaka's company composes poems while viewing the cherry blossoms at Nagisa-no-in.

The first line, "Yo no naka ni," means "in this world." In the second line, "taete sakura no," "taete" followed by a negative means "not at all." The third line, "sakazaraba," is a supposition, "if the cherries did not bloom," with "zara" the irrealis form of the negative auxiliary "zu."
The fourth line, "haru no kokoro wa," means "people's hearts in spring." In the final line, "nodokekaramashi," "mashi" is an auxiliary of counterfactual supposition: they would have been at peace. Through the pattern "... ba ... mashi," it states a supposition contrary to fact and its consequence.
By supposing the opposite—that without cherry blossoms the heart of spring would be calm—the poem expresses a deep attachment to the cherry, whose blooming one awaits and whose falling one mourns, so that the heart is never at rest. In the Tosa Diary, the party passing Nagisa-no-in recalls it as the place where this famous poem was composed.
Author: Ki no Tsurayuki
Source: Tosa Nikki
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