Sazanami ya shiga no miyako no hanazakari kaze yori saki ni towamashi mono o

さざ波や志賀の都の花盛り
風より先に訪はましものを

Roma-ji: Sazanami ya shiga no miyako no hanazakari kaze yori saki ni towamashi mono o
English Translation: Ripples on the lake—
at the old capital of Shiga,
in its blossoms' prime,
before the wind had come to them,
I should have gone to visit.
Meaning: I should have gone to see the old capital of Shiga in full bloom before the wind could reach the blossoms.
Commentary: Spring Poems 90

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Regretting blossoms at the old home"
The poet regrets not having visited the old capital of Shiga, where Emperor Tenji's Ōtsu palace stood, while its blossoms were at their peak, before the wind scattered them. Love for the flowers blooming in the ruined capital and regret at having missed them overlap. Kamo no Mabuchi marked it with a circle.
Pairing the old Shiga capital with blossoms also appears in Taira no Tadanori's Senzaishū poem about the mountain cherries blooming as of old in the ruined capital, and the first two lines use the same words. One character in the last line of the base text is hard to read, so the common reading towamashi mono o has been adopted.

Line 1, sazanami ya ("ripples"), is a pillow word for Shiga.
Line 2 names the site of the Ōtsu palace in Ōmi, the same place as "the flower gardens of Shiga" in 64.
Line 3, "in its blossoms' prime," is a noun phrase naming the peak of bloom.
Line 4 means "before the wind scattered them."
Line 5: mashi is counterfactual, closing with the concessive sigh mono o—"I should have visited." Taking up "no one comes to visit" in the preceding poem, 89, the poet grieves that he too failed to come.
Author: Minamoto no Sanetomo
Source: Kinkaishu
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