Toshi fureba yado wa arenikeri ume no hana hana wa mukashi no ka ni nioedomo

年経れば宿は荒れにけり梅の花
花は昔の香に匂へども

Roma-ji: Toshi fureba yado wa arenikeri ume no hana hana wa mukashi no ka ni nioedomo
English Translation: As the years have passed
the old house has fallen to ruin;
yet the plum blossoms,
the blossoms bloom with fragrance
just the same as long ago.
Meaning: As the years went by the house fell into ruin—though the plum blossoms, at least, still bloom with the same fragrance as long ago.
Commentary: Spring Poems 30

Headnote: "Plum blossoms at the old home"
The poet contrasts an old dwelling fallen to ruin over the years with plum blossoms that still bloom with their former scent. Human dwellings change while nature does not, and the poem expresses the loneliness within nostalgia. Kamo no Mabuchi praised the first two lines but felt the fourth did not suit the poet.
The poem draws on Ki no Tsurayuki's Kokinshū poem, in which he cannot know people's hearts, but at the old place the flowers bloom with the scent of old. The first line reads toshi furedo in the original, but the editor corrected it to toshi fureba on the basis of a marginal note and the Ruijū text, and that correction is followed here.

Line 1, "As the years have passed," gives a settled condition.
Line 2 has an extra syllable; keri laments the ruin of the house, and the poem pauses here.
Line 3, "the plum blossoms," names the flowers that bloom unchanged at the ruined home.
Line 4 repeats "blossoms" to stress their constancy; Mabuchi found this line unsuitable.
Line 5: domo is concessive, "though they bloom with the old scent," trailing off with lingering feeling in inversion. With 31 and 32 it forms a set of three on plum blossoms at the old home, each mentioning "long ago."
Author: Minamoto no Sanetomo
Source: Kinkaishu
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