Haru kureba itoka no yama no itozakura kaze ni midarete hana zo chirikeru

春来れば糸賀の山の糸桜
風に乱れて花ぞ散りける

Roma-ji: Haru kureba itoka no yama no itozakura kaze ni midarete hana zo chirikeru
English Translation: When springtime arrives,
on the hills of Itoka
the thread-like cherries,
tangled by the blowing wind,
scatter all their blossoms down.
Meaning: When spring comes, the weeping cherries on Mount Itoka tangle in the wind like threads and scatter their blossoms.
Commentary: Spring Poems 92

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Composed on falling blossoms"
The poet depicts the weeping cherries of Mount Itoka tangling like threads in the wind and scattering their blossoms when spring comes. Overlapping the "thread" (ito) of the mountain's name with the "thread" of the thread-cherry and leading on to "tangled," the poem's charm lies in the play of sounds. Kamo no Mabuchi wrote "this too is the same," meaning that, like the preceding poem, its clever use of a place name is a later style.
The Ruijū text titles it "Scattering blossoms" and reads the third line yamazakura; the Teika text agrees. The cherries of Mount Itoka are also sung in a Man'yōshū poem wishing they would not fall before the traveler returns.

Line 1 opens like 15 and 39.
Line 2 names Mount Itoka in Kii; the sound ito leads to "thread-cherry" in line 3.
Line 3: itozakura is the weeping cherry, named for its thread-like hanging branches.
Line 4: midare ("tangled") is an associated word with "thread," showing branches swaying in the wind like tangled threads.
Line 5: zo with the attributive of keri forms a kakarimusubi, the same closing as 85. Following "the mountain of storms" in the preceding poem, 91, it is another falling-blossom poem that works on a mountain's name.
Author: Minamoto no Sanetomo
Source: Kinkaishu
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