Oshimikoshi hana no tamoto mo nugikaetsu hito no kokoro zo natsu ni wa arikeru

惜しみこし花の袂も脱ぎかへつ
人の心ぞ夏にはありける

Roma-ji: Oshimikoshi hana no tamoto mo nugikaetsu hito no kokoro zo natsu ni wa arikeru
English Translation: The blossom sleeves
I had grieved to put away—
I have changed them now;
it was the heart of man that
had already turned to summer.
Meaning: Even the blossom-hued sleeves I had so regretted parting with, I have now changed—it was my own heart, I find, that had already become summer.
Commentary: Summer Poems 133

Headnote: "Composed on the change of clothing"
This poem was composed on the change of clothing on the first day of the fourth month, when the blossom-colored robes worn through spring were exchanged for summer garments. Noticing that he has so easily shed the spring robes he had been grieving to part with, the poet realizes, with mild surprise and self-mockery, that his heart had moved into summer ahead of the season. The poem opens the summer section of Minamoto no Sanetomo's Kinkai Wakashū.
Kamo no Mabuchi remarked that "blossom sleeves" refers to robes dyed in cherry color, a usage of later times. Hesitating over the change of clothing out of fondness for blossom-dyed sleeves has a precedent in the poem by Minamoto no Shigeyuki that opens the summer section of the Shūi Wakashū, and this poem answers it from the side of a heart that has changed its robes after all.

Line 1, oshimikoshi, means "which I have kept regretting," with koshi formed from ku ("to come") and the past auxiliary ki. It answers poem 130 of Book One, which wonders whether the "blossom sleeves" will be changed once tonight gives way to tomorrow, so that the end of spring and the start of summer are joined.
Line 2, "the blossom sleeves," refers to sleeves dyed in flower colors, and mo adds the sense "even these, which I had grieved over."
Line 3: the auxiliary tsu marks completion, "I have changed them," and the poem pauses here.
Line 4: the binding particle zo points emphatically to the human heart rather than the season.
Line 5 ends in the attributive form concluding zo, and keru expresses sudden realization. The section's final poem, 179, casts away impurities through purification, so the opening and the close answer each other in shedding the old and renewing oneself.
Author: Minamoto no Sanetomo
Source: Kinkaishu
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