Toshi o hete matsu mo oshimu mo yamazakura kokoro o haru wa tsukusu narikeri

年を経て待つも惜しむも山桜
心を春は尽くすなりけり

Roma-ji: Toshi o hete matsu mo oshimu mo yamazakura kokoro o haru wa tsukusu narikeri
English Translation: Through the passing years,
both in waiting and regret,
for the mountain cherries,
so I find that every spring
I have spent my heart entirely.
Meaning: Year after year, in waiting for the mountain cherries and in grieving over them, I find that spring is a time for spending my heart completely.
Commentary: Spring Poems 109

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "When composing many poems on falling blossoms"
Looking back, the poet realizes that all his anxious waiting for blossoms to open and all his grief at their falling, year after year, were for the mountain cherry, and that spring is a season in which the heart is spent entirely on it.
The poem gathers into one the two feelings that surround the cherry, waiting and regret, and sings of how all of spring has been given to it. The first line toshi o hete is the same as in 89, expressing an unchanging devotion to the cherry over long years.

First line, “toshi o hete”: as the years go by, year after year.
Second line, “matsu mo oshimu mo”: both waiting for them to open and grieving their fall, setting the two feelings side by side.
Third line, “yamazakura”: the mountain cherry, the object of both, with a break after the third line.
Fourth line, “kokoro o haru wa”: in spring, the heart.
Fifth line, “tsukusu narikeri”: it is spent entirely, closing with keri of realization.
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
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