Yoshinoyama hana no chirinishi ko no moto ni tomeshi kokoro wa ware o matsuran

吉野山花の散りにし木のもとに
とめし心は我を待つらん

Roma-ji: Yoshinoyama hana no chirinishi ko no moto ni tomeshi kokoro wa ware o matsuran
English Translation: On Mount Yoshino,
beneath the trees whose blossoms
have all scattered now,
the heart I left behind there
must be waiting for my return.
Meaning: On Mount Yoshino, beneath the trees whose blossoms have fallen, the heart I left behind must now be waiting for me.
Commentary: One Hundred Poems 1453

Headnote: "Ten Poems on Blossoms"
This opens Saigyō's hundred-poem sequence, the first of the ten poems on blossoms. Having left his heart beneath the trees on Mount Yoshino whose blossoms have fallen, he imagines that heart now waiting for him.
The poem sings of a heart parted from the body: captivated by the blossoms, he has gone away, yet his heart remains with them. His devotion, reaching even to the trees after the petals have fallen, shows the lifelong attachment to blossoms so characteristic of Saigyō. Where 1552 at the end closes the hundred with a life lived without falling into anyone's hands, the book begins by leaving the heart among the blossoms of Yoshino.

First line, “Yoshinoyama”: the famous cherry mountain in Yamato; it recurs in 1454, 1461 and 1462 and serves as the stage of this set.
Second line, “hana no chirinishi”: nishi marks completion and past, the blossoms having fallen entirely.
Third line, “ko no moto ni”: beneath the cherry tree whose blossoms have fallen.
Fourth line, “tomeshi kokoro wa”: the heart I left there, as though the heart were a thing set down.
Fifth line, “ware o matsuran”: ran expresses conjecture about the present, imagining from afar that the heart is waiting for him.
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
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