Ne ni kaeru hana o okurite yoshinoyama natsu no sakai ni irite idenuru

根に帰る花を送りて吉野山
夏の境に入りて出でぬる

Roma-ji: Ne ni kaeru hana o okurite yoshinoyama natsu no sakai ni irite idenuru
English Translation: Blossoms going home
to the roots—I saw them off;
then on Mount Yoshino
to the border of summer
I went in, and came back out.
Meaning: Having seen off the blossoms as they returned to their roots, I went into Mount Yoshino as far as the border of summer, and came back out again.
Commentary: One Hundred Poems 1462

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Ten Poems on Blossoms"
The closing poem of the ten on blossoms. Seeing the fallen blossoms off as they return to the roots, he went into Mount Yoshino as far as the border where spring turns to summer, and came out again.
It announces the end of spring by one who has watched the blossoms to the last. The idea that fallen blossoms return to the root was well known, as seen in Retired Emperor Sutoku's poem in the Senzaishū beginning "Blossoms to the root, birds to their old nests return." Like 1453 at the head, it names Mount Yoshino, closing the set that began with trees bare of blossoms with a poem that sends the blossoms home.

First line, “ne ni kaeru”: fallen blossoms returning to the roots of the tree, the end of the blossoms.
Second line, “hana o okurite”: seeing the blossoms off.
Third line, “Yoshinoyama”: the stage of the set, answering 1453, 1454 and 1461.
Fourth line, “natsu no sakai ni”: to the border where spring passes into summer.
Fifth line, “irite idenuru”: nuru, the attributive form of the perfective nu, ends the poem in exclamation, "I went in and came out."
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
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