Kishi chikami ueken hito zo urameshiki nami ni oraruru yamabuki no hana

岸近み植ゑけん人ぞ恨めしき
波に折らるる山吹の花

Roma-ji: Kishi chikami ueken hito zo urameshiki nami ni oraruru yamabuki no hana
English Translation: So close to the shore,
how I resent whoever
planted them just here:
by the waves they break and fall,
the blossoms of the kerria.
Meaning: How I resent whoever planted them so near the shore: the kerria blossoms, broken off by the waves.
Commentary: Spring Poems 165

Headnote: "Kerria"
This is the first of two poems on kerria. Seeing kerria by the shore broken by the waves washing in, the poet resents whoever planted it so close to the water.
The ingenuity lies in expressing grief for the kerria whose branches are broken by the waves as resentment toward the one who planted it. One can picture the pairing of the kerria's yellow with the white of the waves.

First line, “kishi chikami”: since it is near the shore; mi expresses cause.
Second line, “ueken hito zo”: ken is past conjecture, whoever must have planted it; the emphatic zo forms a kakari-musubi with the attributive urameshiki in the third line.
Third line, “urameshiki”: how I resent them, with a break after the third line.
Fourth line, “nami ni oraruru”: broken off by the waves.
Fifth line, “yamabuki no hana”: the poem closes on a noun, the kerria broken by the waves.
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
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