花を見むとしも思はで来し我ぞ
深き山路に日数経にける
深き山路に日数経にける
- Roma-ji
-
Hana o mimu to shi mo omowade koshi ware zo fukaki yamaji ni hikazu henikeru
- English Translation
-
Not that I set out
thinking I would see blossoms,
yet I, who came here,
along deep mountain pathways
have spent many days, I find.
- Meaning
- I didn't come especially meaning to see the blossoms, yet here I am, having spent many days on these deep mountain paths.
- Commentary
-
Spring Poems 58
Headnote: "Seeking blossoms"
The poet did not come with any special intention of seeing blossoms, yet he finds he has spent many days on deep mountain paths, drawn on by them. He expresses the topic "seeking blossoms" as a heart that seeks flowers without realizing it.
In the Ruijū text the headnote reads "On the theme of seeking blossoms." One character in the fourth line of the base text is hard to read, so the common reading fukaki yamaji ni has been adopted.
Line 1: mu expresses intention, "to see blossoms."
Line 2: shimo is emphatic, "not especially thinking so."
Line 3: zo is a binding particle that answers the attributive of the last line.
Line 4, "deep mountain pathways," names roads far from villages.
Line 5 concludes zo with the attributive and ends, like the preceding poem, 57, with henikeru. Where 57 spoke of many springs in a mountain village, this speaks of days on a mountain path, a change of scale in time.
- Author
- Minamoto no Sanetomo
- Source
- Kinkaishu
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Sakurabana saki chiru mireba yamazato ni ware zo ōku no haru wa henikeru
- Next Poem
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Ima shi wa to omoishi hodo ni sakurabana chiru ko no moto ni hikazu henubeshi