Yukite mimu to omoishi hodo ni chirinikeri ayana no hana ya kaze tatanu ma ni

行きて見むと思ひしほどに散りにけり
あやなの花や風立たぬまに

Roma-ji: Yukite mimu to omoishi hodo ni chirinikeri ayana no hana ya kaze tatanu ma ni
English Translation: "I will go to see,"
so I thought, and all the while
they have scattered down—
O blossoms, how senseless you are,
before the wind had even risen.
Meaning: While I was still thinking of going to see them, they scattered—how senseless you are, blossoms, falling before the wind had even risen.
Commentary: Spring Poems 71

Headnote: "Toward the end of the third month I visited Shōchōju-in; seeing a monk hidden in the shade of the hill, I asked him about the blossoms, and he answered that they had fallen. Hearing this"
Toward the end of the third month the poet visited Shōchōju-in; when he asked a monk in the shade of the hill about the blossoms, the monk replied that they had fallen. Just as he had meant to go and see them, the flowers had scattered without even a wind, and he laments how unreasonable they are. Kamo no Mabuchi marked it with a circle.
In the Ruijū text the headnote begins "Toward the end of the third month" and ends "…hearing this, I composed." Shōchōju-in was the temple Minamoto no Yoritomo built in Kamakura to pray for his father Yoshitomo.

Line 1 is hypermetric at six syllables; mu expresses intention, the thought of going to see.
Line 2 means "while I was thinking so."
Line 3: keri conveys surprise at learning of the fallen blossoms from the monk's words, and the poem pauses here.
Line 4: ayana means senseless or unreasonable, and ya is exclamatory.
Line 5, "before the wind had even risen," stands in inversion. Where 70 resented the wind for scattering the flowers, here the poet laments blossoms that fell without any wind at all.
Author: Minamoto no Sanetomo
Source: Kinkaishu
Prev Poem: Kokoro uki kaze ni mo aru kana sakurabana saku hodo mo naku chirinuberanari
Next Poem: Sakurabana saku to mishi ma ni chirinikeri yume ka utsutsu ka haru no yamakaze