春来れば花の梢に誘はれて
至らぬ里のなかりつるかな
至らぬ里のなかりつるかな
- Roma-ji
-
Haru kureba hana no kozue ni sasowarete itaranu sato no nakaritsuru kana
- English Translation
-
When the spring comes round
by the treetops in their bloom
I have been enticed,
and there is no village left
where I have not gone.
- Meaning
- Whenever spring came, lured on by the flowering treetops, there was not a village I failed to visit.
- Commentary
-
Book One Spring Poems 27
Every spring, drawn by the blossoms, the poet went from village to village until there was hardly one he had not visited. Within the generous manner befitting a sovereign's poem, his love of flowers shows freely.
Like the preceding poem it sings of "treetops," and the arrangement places Retired Emperor Shirakawa's poem right after the poem on the Shirakawa district.
The first line, "when the spring comes round," means whenever spring comes, a habitual condition.
The second line, "by the treetops in their bloom," takes up "the treetops of the springtime" from the preceding poem's second line.
The third line, "I have been enticed," is passive, picturing the poet lured out by the flowers.
The fourth line, "no village where I have not gone," uses "nu," the attributive of the negative "zu."
The last line, "there is none," looks back with the perfective "tsuru" and the exclamatory "kana."
- Author
- Retired Emperor Shirakawa
- Source
- Shika Wakashu
- Prev Poem
-
Shirakawa no haru no kozue o miwataseba matsu koso hana no taema narikere
- Next Poem
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Ikemizu no migiwa narazu wa sakurabana kage o mo nami ni oraremashi ya wa