一重だに飽かぬ匂ひをいとどしく
八重重なれる山吹の花
八重重なれる山吹の花
- Roma-ji
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Hitoe dani akanu nioi o itodoshiku yae kasanareru yamabuki no hana
- English Translation
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Even single-petaled
its beauty never palls, and yet
all the more so now
layered eightfold, petal on petal,
the yellow kerria in bloom.
- Meaning
- Even with a single layer of petals its beauty never tires the eye; how much more so this kerria in bloom, its petals layered eightfold.
- Commentary
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Book One Spring Poems 45
The poet praises the kerria, whose beauty is unwearying even in single blossoms and grows all the greater when layered eightfold. The numerical contrast of single and eightfold heightens the splendor of the double kerria.
Here begin two poems on the kerria.
The first line, "even single-petaled," uses "dani" to cite the lesser case and imply the greater.
The second line, "its beauty never palls," means color and luster one never tires of.
The third line, "all the more so," means ever more intensely.
The fourth line, "layered eightfold," pairs with "single" in the first line, and the word passes on to "blooming eightfold" in the first line of the next poem.
The last line, "the kerria in bloom," ends on a noun, naming the late-spring flower last.
- Author
- Fujiwara no Nagato
- Source
- Shika Wakashu
- Prev Poem
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Chiru hana ni sekitomeraruru yamakawa no fukaku mo haru no narinikeru kana
- Next Poem
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Yae sakeru kai koso nakere yamabuki no chiraba hitoe mo araji to omoeba