鶯はいたくなわびそ梅の花
今年のみ散る習ひならねば
今年のみ散る習ひならねば
- Roma-ji
-
Uguisu wa itaku na wabi so ume no hana kotoshi nomi chiru narai naraneba
- English Translation
-
O little warbler,
do not grieve so bitterly;
the plum's fair blossoms
do not scatter just this year—
that is not the way of things.
- Meaning
- Warbler, don't grieve so deeply—it isn't as if the plum blossoms scatter only this year.
- Commentary
-
Spring Poems 29
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Composed on plum blossoms"
The poet consoles a warbler lamenting the falling plum blossoms, telling it not to grieve so, since the flowers do not fall only this year. Behind the kindly words to the bird lies his own wish to accept the fate of blossoms falling year after year.
Line 1, "O little warbler," makes the warbler, companion of the plum, the one addressed.
Line 2: the na…so construction forbids, meaning "do not grieve so," and the poem pauses here.
Line 3, "the plum's blossoms," names the falling flowers that cause the bird's grief.
Line 4: nomi limits—"only this year."
Line 5 gives the reason, "since that is not the way of things," in inversion. Following the preceding poems that mourn the falling plum, this one receives the falling as the ordinary course of the world.
- Author
- Minamoto no Sanetomo
- Source
- Kinkaishu
- Prev Poem
-
Saritomo to omoishi hodo ni ume no hana chirisuguru made kimi ga kimasanu
- Next Poem
-
Toshi fureba yado wa arenikeri ume no hana hana wa mukashi no ka ni nioedomo