Hana mo chiri hito mo miyako e kaerinaba yama sabishiku ya naran to suran

花も散り人も都へ帰りなば
山さびしくやならんとすらん

Roma-ji: Hana mo chiri hito mo miyako e kaerinaba yama sabishiku ya naran to suran
English Translation: When the blooms have fallen,
and the people too go back
home to the capital,
will the mountains then become
lonely and forlorn, I wonder?
Meaning: When the blossoms have fallen and the viewers have all gone back to the capital, will the mountains grow lonely?
Commentary: Spring Poems 157

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "When composing fifteen poems on cherry blossoms"
The poet imagines that once the blossoms have fallen and the visitors who came to view them have all returned to the capital, the mountains will grow lonely; this poem closes the fifteen cherry poems.
The first line hana mo chiri is the same as in 88, where the poet welcomed the peace that would come to the hills once the blossoms fell and people stopped coming; here the same situation is felt as loneliness. Two sides of the same mountain dweller's heart, peace and loneliness, are portrayed as a pair.

First line, “hana mo chiri”: the blossoms having fallen too, the same first line as 88.
Second line, “hito mo miyako e”: and the viewers, to the capital.
Third line, “kaerinaba”: if they have gone home, a condition.
Fourth line, “yama sabishiku ya”: the interrogative ya forms a kakari-musubi with ran in the fifth line.
Fifth line, “naran to suran”: will they become so, closing with the conjectural ran, in contrast with nodoka naru beshi in 88.
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
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