Tsure mo naki hito ni miseba ya sakurabana kaze ni shitagau kokoroyowasa o

つれもなき人に見せばや桜花
風に従ふ心弱さを

Roma-ji: Tsure mo naki hito ni miseba ya sakurabana kaze ni shitagau kokoroyowasa o
English Translation: To one cold to me
I would like to show it now,
O you cherry flowers,
how you follow where the wind
wills, weak-hearted as you are.
Meaning: How I wish I could show my cold beloved, cherry blossoms, the weakness of heart with which you yield to the wind.
Commentary: Love Poems 597

Headnote: "Love expressed through blossoms"
The topic is love expressed through blossoms. The poet wishes he could show the yielding weakness of the cherry blossoms, which scatter without resisting the wind, to the cold person who will not bend toward him. In it lies the hope that she too might yield to his love as the blossoms yield to the wind.

First line, “tsure mo naki”: tsurenashi is cold, unresponsive to another's love.
Second line, “hito ni miseba ya”: baya expresses one's own wish: I would like to show her.
Third line, “sakurabana”: an address to the cherry blossoms, answering the topic; the poem breaks after the third line.
Fourth line, “kaze ni shitagau”: yielding to the wind without resistance, the blossoms scattering readily.
Fifth line, “kokoroyowasa o”: that weakness of heart, returning in inversion to miseba ya; the readiness to yield is set against the coldness of one who will not.
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
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