Sato wa arenu shiga no hanazono sonokami no mukashi no kimi ya koishikaruramu

里は荒れぬ志賀の花園そのかみの
昔の君や恋しかるらむ

Roma-ji: Sato wa arenu shiga no hanazono sonokami no mukashi no kimi ya koishikaruramu
English Translation: The village lies in ruin;
the flower gardens of Shiga—
do they still long so
for their lord of long ago,
of those ancient days of old?
Meaning: The village has fallen to ruin—do the flower gardens of Shiga long for their lord of long ago?
Commentary: Spring Poems 64

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Blossoms at the old capital"
Thinking of the site of the old capital at Shiga, where Emperor Tenji once held the Ōtsu palace, the poet wonders whether the flowers blooming in the ruined village long for their former lord. Entrusting nostalgia to the flowers, he expresses his feelings on the rise and fall of the old capital.
Pairing the ruin of the old capital at Shiga with blossoms also appears in Taira no Tadanori's Senzaishū poem, in which the capital of Shiga has fallen to ruin while the mountain cherries bloom as of old.

Line 1 is hypermetric at six syllables; it closes with the perfective nu, and the poem pauses here.
Line 2 names the flower gardens at the site of the old capital of Shiga in Ōmi; the blossoms of the Shiga capital are sung again in 90.
Line 3: sonokami no means "of those days of old."
Line 4 suggests Emperor Tenji, builder of the Ōtsu palace, and ya is interrogative.
Line 5 concludes ya with the attributive ramu. Taking up the change of the blossoms' master in the preceding poem, 63, here the flowers yearn for their lord of old.
Author: Minamoto no Sanetomo
Source: Kinkaishu
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