Waga yado no ume no hatsuhana sakinikeri matsu uguisu wa nado ka kinakanu

わが宿の梅の初花咲きにけり
待つ鶯はなどか来鳴かぬ

Roma-ji: Waga yado no ume no hatsuhana sakinikeri matsu uguisu wa nado ka kinakanu
English Translation: At my dwelling now
the first blossoms of the plum
have burst into bloom;
the warbler I wait for so,
why does it not come to sing?
Meaning: The first plum blossoms at my house have opened—so why doesn't the warbler I've been waiting for come and sing?
Commentary: Spring Poems 38

Headnote: "A place where plum blossoms are in bloom"
The poet wonders why the warbler he has been longing for does not come to sing, though the first blossoms have opened on his plum tree. He treats the pairing of plum and warbler from the side of one waiting for an absent bird, and his impatience for spring to deepen shows through.
In the Ruijū text the headnote reads "Composed on a place where plum blossoms are in bloom."

Line 1, "At my dwelling," opens like 36, naming the poet's home.
Line 2, "the first blossoms of the plum," echoes "the first blossoms of the spring" in 35.
Line 3: keri expresses wonder, and the poem pauses here.
Line 4 names the warbler eagerly awaited with the plum's bloom.
Line 5 answers the interrogative nado ka with nu, the attributive of the negative. In contrast to 15, where the warbler sings drawn by plum scent, here the plum blooms but the warbler does not come. The group of plum poems closes with this poem.
Author: Minamoto no Sanetomo
Source: Kinkaishu
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