Akugaruru kokoro wa satemo yamazakura chirinan nochi ya mi ni kaeru beki

あくがるる心はさても山桜
散りなんのちや身に帰るべき

Roma-ji: Akugaruru kokoro wa satemo yamazakura chirinan nochi ya mi ni kaeru beki
English Translation: This heart wandering,
drawn away, what then of it?
O mountain cherries,
once your blossoms all have fallen,
will it come back to my frame?
Meaning: This heart of mine that has wandered off, what will become of it? Once the mountain cherries have scattered, will it return to my body?
Commentary: Spring Poems 67

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "When composing many poems on cherry blossoms"
The poet wonders whether his heart, lured out of his body by the blossoms and now wandering, will come back to him once the mountain cherries have scattered.
Taking up the preceding poem's thought that the heart has not stayed with the body since the day the blossoms were seen, this poem asks when that heart will return. The two form a pair treating the same theme of heart and body parting, from its beginning and from its end. This poem was included in the Shingosen Wakashū.

First line, “akugaruru”: the heart drifting away from the body.
Second line, “kokoro wa satemo”: satemo means even so, well then.
Third line, “yamazakura”: the mountain cherries that lured the heart away, leading into the fourth line.
Fourth line, “chirinan nochi ya”: after they have scattered; the interrogative ya forms a kakari-musubi with beki in the fifth line.
Fifth line, “mi ni kaeru beki”: will it return to the body, echoing kokoro wa mi ni mo sowazu of the preceding poem.
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
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