Yuku mizu ni kaze no fukiiruru sakurabana nagarete kienu awa ka to zo miru

行く水に風の吹き入るる桜花
流れて消えぬ泡かとぞ見る

Roma-ji: Yuku mizu ni kaze no fukiiruru sakurabana nagarete kienu awa ka to zo miru
English Translation: Into flowing streams
the wind blows the cherry petals,
blossoms drifting down—
as foam that flows but never fades,
so they seem to me to be.
Meaning: The cherry petals blown by the wind into the flowing stream look to me like foam that drifts along yet never vanishes.
Commentary: Spring Poems 79

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Falling blossoms by the water"
The poet likens cherry petals blown by the wind into flowing water to foam that flows on without vanishing. Foam is ephemeral, yet the petals drift on without disappearing—the charm lies in this comparison.
The Teika text gives the second line as kaze fukiiruru, and the Ruijū and Teika texts differ in the last line.

Line 1 names the flowing water.
Line 2 means the wind blows the petals into the water.
Line 3 names the petals floating on the water.
Line 4 means "flowing yet not vanishing"; the conceit is foam that does not fade.
Line 5: zo with the attributive miru forms a kakarimusubi. Where the preceding poem, 78, said the blossoms had become foam, here they look like foam that never vanishes, reversing the same image.
Author: Minamoto no Sanetomo
Source: Kinkaishu
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