Toshi o hete onaji kozue ni nioedomo hana koso hito ni akarezarikere

年を経て同じ梢に匂へども
花こそ人に飽かれざりけれ

Roma-ji: Toshi o hete onaji kozue ni nioedomo hana koso hito ni akarezarikere
English Translation: Through the passing years,
on the same treetops they bloom,
blooming all the same,
yet the flowers, it would seem,
never weary those who come.
Meaning: Year after year they bloom on the same treetops, yet the blossoms, it seems, are never tired of by people, unlike me.
Commentary: Spring Poems 89

Headnote: "Composed on hearing that someone who had long since stopped calling on me had come to the mountain village to view the blossoms"
According to the headnote, this poem was composed on hearing that someone who had stopped writing altogether had come to the mountain village to view the blossoms. Though the flowers bloom on the same branches every year, no one tires of them, while the poet himself has been tired of entirely, a feeling he conveys by envying the blossoms.
Without voicing his reproach of the estranged person directly, the poet compares himself with the flowers, conveying it lightly yet sharply.

First line, “toshi o hete”: as the years go by.
Second line, “onaji kozue ni”: on the same branch tips each year.
Third line, “nioedomo”: though they bloom in beauty, continuing adversatively.
Fourth line, “hana koso hito ni”: the emphatic koso forms a kakari-musubi with kere in the fifth line, singling out the flowers in implied contrast with the poet.
Fifth line, “akarezarikere”: they are never tired of, ending in kere, the perfective of keri, with an undertone of grief at having been tired of himself.
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
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