桜花咲きぬる時は吉野山
立ちものぼらぬ峰の白雲
立ちものぼらぬ峰の白雲
- Roma-ji
-
Sakurabana sakinuru toki wa yoshinoyama tachi mo noboranu mine no shirakumo
- English Translation
-
When the cherry trees
have burst at last into bloom,
on Mount Yoshino
there are clouds that never rise,
white clouds lying on the peaks
- Meaning
- When the cherry blossoms are in bloom, on Mount Yoshino there are white clouds on the peaks that never rise.
- Commentary
-
Book One Spring Poems 47
When the cherries of Yoshino bloom, the peaks seem draped in white clouds, but these are clouds that never rise; that is, they are cherries. The wit lies in noting that real clouds would drift upward, while these stay still.
The author, Akisue, is Fujiwara no Akisue. A son of Fujiwara no Takatsune, he was trusted as a close retainer of Emperor Shirakawa because his mother had been the emperor's wet nurse, and he rose to Master of the Office of Palace Repairs. He founded the Rokujō Fujiwara house of poetry.
First line, 'sakurabana', states the theme.
Second line, 'sakinuru toki wa', means when they have bloomed.
Third line, 'yoshinoyama', is the famous cherry site in Yamato, also sung in poem 29.
Fourth line, 'tachi mo noboranu', means clouds that do not even rise, revealing that the white clouds are really cherries.
Final line, 'mine no shirakumo', ends on a noun. Like poem 36, it uses the conceit of cherries as white clouds.
- Author
- Fujiwara no Akisue
- Source
- Kinyo Wakashu
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Minetsuzuki niou sakura o shirube nite shiranu yamaji ni kakarinuru kana
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Ono no e wa ko no moto nite ya kuchinamashi haru o kagiranu sakura nariseba