春来れど人もすさめぬ山桜
風のたよりに我のみぞ訪ふ
風のたよりに我のみぞ訪ふ
- Roma-ji
-
Haru kuredo hito mo susamenu yamazakura kaze no tayori ni ware nomi zo tou
- English Translation
-
Though spring has come round,
no one cares for it at all—
this wild mountain cherry;
by the tidings of the wind
I alone come visiting.
- Meaning
- Though spring has come, no one cares for the mountain cherry—only I, guided by word from the wind, come to visit it.
- Commentary
-
Spring Poems 73
Headnote: "Composed and sent to someone"
This poem was composed and sent to someone. The poet says that he alone, hearing word on the wind, visits the mountain cherry that no one cares for even when spring comes. It can be read as likening the recipient to the unnoticed mountain cherry and entrusting to the flower his feeling that he, at least, keeps the person in his heart.
In the Ruijū text the headnote ends "…sent," and the Ruijū and Teika texts differ in the first line.
Line 1: do is concessive, "though spring has come."
Line 2: susamu means to care for and admire, so the line means no one admires it.
Line 3 names a flower blooming unnoticed.
Line 4 means relying on news carried by the wind; unlike the preceding poems that made the wind the enemy that scatters blossoms, here it tells where the flowers are.
Line 5: zo with the attributive forms a kakarimusubi, stressing that he alone visits.
- Author
- Minamoto no Sanetomo
- Source
- Kinkaishu
- Prev Poem
-
Sakurabana saku to mishi ma ni chirinikeri yume ka utsutsu ka haru no yamakaze
- Next Poem
-
Yamazakura chiraba chiranamu oshige nami yoshi ya hito mizu hana no natate ni