吉野山梢の花を見し日より
心は身にも添はずなりにき
心は身にも添はずなりにき
- Roma-ji
-
Yoshinoyama kozue no hana o mishi hi yori kokoro wa mi ni mo sowazu nariniki
- English Translation
-
On Mount Yoshino,
since the day I saw the blooms
upon the treetops,
my heart no longer stays
within my body as before.
- Meaning
- Ever since the day I saw the blossoms on the treetops of Mount Yoshino, my heart has no longer kept company with my body.
- Commentary
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Spring Poems 66
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "When composing many poems on cherry blossoms"
From the day the poet saw the cherries on the treetops of Mount Yoshino, his heart has been carried off by the flowers and has left his body. The poem expresses a longing so strong that body and heart have come apart.
The image of a heart slipping out of the body under the spell of the blossoms reveals Saigyō's deep attachment to the cherry. This poem was included in the Shoku Goshūi Wakashū.
First line, “Yoshinoyama”: Mount Yoshino in Yamato, famed for its cherries.
Second line, “kozue no hana o”: the blossoms at the tips of the branches.
Third line, “mishi hi yori”: from the day I saw them; shi, the attributive of the past ki, marks the day the heart departed.
Fourth line, “kokoro wa mi ni mo”: my heart, from my body, treating body and heart as separate.
Fifth line, “sowazu nariniki”: has ceased to stay with me, closing with the past ki to show the heart still captive to the blossoms.
- Author
- Saigyō
- Source
- Sankashu
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Magau iro ni hana sakinureba Yoshinoyama haru wa haresenu mine no shirakumo
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Akugaruru kokoro wa satemo yamazakura chirinan nochi ya mi ni kaeru beki