梅が枝はわが衣手に匂ひ来ぬ
花より過ぐる春の初風
花より過ぐる春の初風
- Roma-ji
-
Umegae wa waga koromode ni nioikinu hana yori suguru haru no hatsukaze
- English Translation
-
From the plum's branches
the scent comes to my sleeve now,
fragrance drifting near,
carried past the blossoms by
the first breeze of the spring.
- Meaning
- The scent of the plum branches has come to my sleeve, carried by the first breeze of spring as it passes by the blossoms.
- Commentary
-
Spring Poems 33
Headnote: "Plum blossoms perfume the robe"
The poet sings of the first breeze of spring, which, passing by the blossoms, has brought the fragrance of the plum branches to his sleeve. True to the topic "Plum blossoms perfume the robe," it is a graceful poem that senses spring's arrival in the plum scent clinging to the clothes. Kamo no Mabuchi judged the phrase "passing the blossoms" a later style.
One character in the third line of the base text is hard to read, so the common reading nioikinu has been adopted.
Line 1, "From the plum's branches," names the source of the scent.
Line 2: koromode means sleeve, the place the scent clings to.
Line 3, "fragrance drifting near," closes with the perfective nu, and the poem pauses here.
Line 4: yori marks a route—passing by the blossoms.
Line 5 ends on a noun, naming in inversion what carried the scent. The next poem, 34, ends with the same "first breeze of spring," so poems on plum scent and the first breeze follow each other.
- Author
- Minamoto no Sanetomo
- Source
- Kinkaishu
- Prev Poem
-
Tare ni ka mo mukashi o towamu furusato no nokiba no ume wa haru o koso shire
- Next Poem
-
Ume ga ka o yume no makura ni sasoikite samuru machikeru haru no hatsukaze