梅の花にほふあたりはよきてこそ
急ぐ道をば行くべかりけれ
急ぐ道をば行くべかりけれ
- Roma-ji
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Ume no hana niou atari wa yokite koso isogu michi o ba yukubekari kere
- English Translation
-
Where the plum blossoms
send their fragrance all around,
that place I should shun,
and along the road I hurry
I should have made my way instead
- Meaning
- I should have kept away from the places where the plum blossoms are fragrant and gone on along the road I was hurrying down.
- Commentary
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Book One Spring Poems 17
Hurrying on a journey, the poet was held back by the scent of plum blossoms and, paradoxically, says he ought to have avoided the places where they bloom. The power of the plum's fragrance is praised in the form of regret. Poems on the plum continue from here to poem 21.
The author, Ryōzen, was a Tendai monk of the mid-Heian period. He is said to have served as steward of the Gion shrine-temple, and his poems appear in imperial anthologies from the Goshūiwakashū onward, as well as in the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu.
First line, 'ume no hana', states the theme, and the sequence on the plum begins here.
Second line, 'niou atari wa', uses niou, to give off a lovely scent; with the plum it mainly refers to fragrance.
Third line, 'yokite koso', uses yoku, to avoid, with koso closing on the perfective kere in the final line.
Fourth line, 'isogu michi o ba', stresses that the poet is on an urgent journey.
Final line, 'yukubekari kere', means I should have gone, expressing a sigh at being detained by the plum's fragrance.
- Author
- Ryōzen
- Source
- Kinyo Wakashu
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Harusame wa furishimuredomo uguisu no koe wa shiorenu mono ni zo arikeru
- Next Poem
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Ume ga e ni kaze ya fukuramu haru no yo wa oranu sode sae nioinuru kana