Yoshinoyama sakura ni magau shirakumo no chirinan nochi wa harezu mo aranan

吉野山桜にまがふ白雲の
散りなんのちは晴れずもあらなん

Roma-ji: Yoshinoyama sakura ni magau shirakumo no chirinan nochi wa harezu mo aranan
English Translation: On Mount Yoshino,
white clouds so like the cherries
one cannot tell them apart,
after all the blooms have fallen,
may you never clear away.
Meaning: On Mount Yoshino, you white clouds so like the cherries, after the blossoms have fallen, I wish you would never clear away.
Commentary: Spring Poems 132

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "When composing many poems on falling blossoms"
The poet calls on the white clouds that hang on the peaks of Mount Yoshino, so like the cherries as to be indistinguishable, and asks them not to clear but to linger even after the blossoms have fallen.
If clouds resembling the cherries remain after the flowers fall, one can still see a trace of them. The poem carries a heart's device for grieving the blossoms: keeping the clouds as a memento of the flowers. The fourth line chirinan nochi uses the same words as the fourth line of 67, where the poet asked where his heart would go after the flowers had fallen.

First line, “Yoshinoyama”: Mount Yoshino in Yamato, famed for its cherries.
Second line, “sakura ni magau”: so like the cherries as to be mistaken for them.
Third line, “shirakumo no”: the white clouds on the peaks, subject of what follows.
Fourth line, “chirinan nochi wa”: after the cherries have fallen, the same words as the fourth line of 67.
Fifth line, “harezu mo aranan”: nan expresses a wish addressed to another, may you not clear, closing with a plea to the clouds.
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
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