Yoshinoyama fumoto ni furanu yuki naraba hana ka to mite ya tazuneiramashi

吉野山麓に降らぬ雪ならば
花かと見てや尋ね入らまし

Roma-ji: Yoshinoyama fumoto ni furanu yuki naraba hana ka to mite ya tazuneiramashi
English Translation: On Yoshino Mountain
if the snow were snow that fell
not upon the foothills,
thinking them the blossoms, then
I would go seeking deep inside.
Meaning: If the snow on Mount Yoshino did not fall on its foothills too, I would take it for cherry blossoms and go searching deep into the mountain.
Commentary: Winter Poems 565

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Ten winter poems"
This is the ninth of the ten winter poems. If the white on the peaks of Mount Yoshino were snow that did not fall at the foot, the poet would take it for cherry blossoms and go seeking deep into the mountain. Since snow is falling at the foot as well, he knows the white of the peaks is snow, and through this counterfactual the poem lays the snow of Yoshino over its cherries.
Poem 512 in this book saw the first snow on Yoshino's mountain cherries as blossoms, and the next poem, 567, likens snow on the trees to flowers, so the device of joining Yoshino's snow and cherries recurs in this book.

First line, “Yoshinoyama”: Yoshinoyama is a mountain in Yamato, a name in poetry famous for its cherries.
Second line, “fumoto ni furanu”: not falling on the foothills, with nu the attributive of the negative zu.
Third line, “yuki naraba”: ba after the irrealis marks a hypothetical condition, if it were snow.
Fourth line, “hana ka to mite ya”: ya is a question particle answering mashi in the last line, taking it for blossoms.
Fifth line, “tazuneiramashi”: tazuneiru is to go seeking deep inside, and mashi is the auxiliary of the counterfactual, I would have gone, showing he does not.
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
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