山風の桜吹きまく音すなり
吉野の滝の岩もとどろに
吉野の滝の岩もとどろに
- Roma-ji
-
Yamakaze no sakura fukimaku oto su nari yoshino no taki no iwa mo todoro ni
- English Translation
-
The mountain wind's roar,
as it whirls the cherry blossoms,
I can hear it sound—
by the falls of Yoshino
the rocks themselves are thundering.
- Meaning
- I hear the roar of the mountain wind whirling the cherry blossoms—so loud the very rocks of the Yoshino falls thunder.
- Commentary
-
Spring Poems 76
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "On a folding screen showing cherry trees in bloom in the mountains"
The poet hears the mountain wind whirling the cherry blossoms at Yoshino, its roar resounding until even the rocks of the falls seem to thunder. Capturing the violence of the wind that scatters the flowers through sound, he powerfully paints the grand landscape of Yoshino in his characteristic Man'yō style. Kamo no Mabuchi gave it a double circle, valuing it highly.
Line 1 names the mountain wind that scatters the blossoms.
Line 2: fukimaku means a wind blowing fiercely and whirling things up.
Line 3: nari infers from sound; the poet senses the fierce wind from its roar, and the poem pauses here.
Line 4 names the same falls of Yoshino as "above the waterfall… Mount Mifune" in the preceding poem, 75.
Line 5 means "so that even the rocks thunder," in inversion. Where the preceding poem showed blossoms floating quietly on the wind, this one sings of a wind fierce enough to make the rocks roar, a pairing of stillness and motion.
- Author
- Minamoto no Sanetomo
- Source
- Kinkaishu
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Taki no ue no mifune no yama no yamazakura kaze ni ukite zo hana mo chirikeru
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Yamakaze no sakura fukimaki chiru hana no midarete miyuru shiga no uranami