眺めこし花もむなしく散り果てて
はかなく春の暮れにけるかな
はかなく春の暮れにけるかな
- Roma-ji
-
Nagamekoshi hana mo munashiku chirihatete hakanaku haru no kurenikeru kana
- English Translation
-
The flowers I've watched,
gazing long and lost in thought,
have fallen all in vain,
and so fleetingly the spring
has come to its evening close.
- Meaning
- The blossoms I gazed on so long in thought have all fallen in vain, and spring has fleetingly drawn to its close.
- Commentary
-
Spring Poems 126
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Composed on the end of spring"
The poet laments that the blossoms he gazed on all through spring have fallen in vain and that spring has ended so fleetingly. Looking back on a spring spent with flowers, he simply expresses his regret at how abruptly it ended. Kamo no Mabuchi said nagamekoshi in the first line is an expression the people of that time used mistakenly.
Line 1 means "that I have gazed on in thought," the expression Mabuchi called a mistaken usage.
Line 2 means "the blossoms too, in vain," echoing "bloomed in vain" in 81.
Line 3 means "having fallen completely," taking up "not a single one is left" in the preceding poem, 125.
Line 4 means "fleetingly, spring."
Line 5 adds the exclamatory kana to nu and keri, lamenting spring's end. Following "spring has grown late" in 96, it confirms the close of spring.
- Author
- Minamoto no Sanetomo
- Source
- Kinkaishu
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