掃く人もなき古里の庭の面は
花散りてこそ見るべかりけれ
花散りてこそ見るべかりけれ
- Roma-ji
-
Haku hito mo naki furusato no niwa no omo wa hana chirite koso mirubekarikere
- English Translation
-
With no one to sweep it,
the garden of the old home,
the face of its ground,
only when the blossoms fall
is it truly worth beholding.
- Meaning
- The ground of this old garden, where no one sweeps anymore, is truly worth seeing only once the blossoms have fallen upon it.
- Commentary
-
Book One Spring Poems 38
Even the neglected garden of an old house, where no one sweeps anymore, is worth looking at when fallen blossoms lie upon it. In the petals beautifully covering a ruined garden, loneliness and beauty intertwine.
The first line, "with no one to sweep it," continues, as if answering "since I left them unswept" in the preceding poem, with an unswept garden.
The second line, "the old home," means an old house no longer lived in.
The third line, "the face of its ground," is the surface of the garden; the line has an extra syllable.
The fourth line, "only when the blossoms fall," emphasizes with the particle "koso."
The last line, "is it truly worth beholding," closes a kakari-musubi with "koso" and the realis "kere," with the "keri" of realization within it.
- Author
- Minamoto no Toshiyori
- Source
- Shika Wakashu
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Sakurabana chirishiku niwa o harawaneba kiesenu yuki to narinikeru kana
- Next Poem
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Sakura saku ko no shitamizu wa asakeredo chirishiku hana no fuchi to koso nare