山桜惜しむにとまるものならば
花は春とも限らざらまし
花は春とも限らざらまし
- Roma-ji
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Yamazakura oshimu ni tomaru mono naraba hana wa haru tomo kagirazaramashi
- English Translation
-
Mountain cherries,
if by grieving we could make
them stay upon the bough,
the blossoms would not be bound
to the season of spring alone.
- Meaning
- If the mountain cherries would stay simply because we mourn their passing, the blossoms would not be limited to spring alone.
- Commentary
-
Book One Spring Poems 23
If cherries would stay simply because people grieve over them, they would no longer be flowers of spring alone; the poem casts regret for falling blossoms in the form of an argument. Beneath it lies the lament that no amount of regret keeps the flowers from falling.
The first line, "mountain cherries," continues the cherry poems that came before.
The second line, "if by grieving we could make them stay," means staying unscattered because they are mourned; the same phrase appears in the second line of 42, and the idea returns later in the book.
The third line, "if," sets up a hypothesis: if that were so.
The fourth line, "bound to the season of spring," means the flowers belonging to spring alone.
The last line, "would not be bound," uses the counterfactual "mashi," implying the reality that flowers are bound to spring and fall.
- Author
- Fujiwara no Kinzane
- Source
- Shika Wakashu
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Kokonoe ni tatsu shirakumo to mietsuru wa Ōuchiyama no sakura narikeri