Hana o miru kokoro wa yoso ni hedatarite mi ni tsukitaru wa kimi ga omokage

花を見る心はよそに隔たりて
身につきたるは君が面影

Roma-ji: Hana o miru kokoro wa yoso ni hedatarite mi ni tsukitaru wa kimi ga omokage
English Translation: The heart that should look
at the blossoms drifts away
into somewhere else,
and what clings close to me now
is the image of your face.
Meaning: My heart, meant to be gazing at the blossoms, has drifted far from them, and what clings close to me is only the image of you.
Commentary: Love Poems 598

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Love expressed through blossoms"
The heart that should be looking at the blossoms has somehow drifted away from them, and what stays close to the poet and will not leave him is only the image of the one he loves. The depth of a love that can think of nothing but the beloved, even while gazing at the blossoms, is expressed by setting the blossoms against her image.
Where the preceding poem wished to show the blossoms' yielding to the beloved, this one tells of the poet whose heart is taken more by the beloved's image than by the blossoms, so the same topic is sung from her side and from his.

First line, “hana o miru”: gazing at the blossoms, answering the topic.
Second line, “kokoro wa yoso ni”: yoso is somewhere else, the heart drifting away from the blossoms.
Third line, “hedatarite”: having grown apart.
Fourth line, “mi ni tsukitaru wa”: what clings close to me, set against the drifting apart of the third line.
Fifth line, “kimi ga omokage”: omokage is an image of someone absent rising in the heart; the poem ends on a noun.
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
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