吉野山峰に波寄る白雲と
見ゆるは花のこずゑなりけり
見ゆるは花のこずゑなりけり
- Roma-ji
-
Yoshinoyama mine ni nami yoru shirakumo to miyuru wa hana no kozue nari keri
- English Translation
-
On Mount Yoshino
what I took for wave-like drifts
of white clouds on the peaks
were the treetops of the cherries
all in blossom, I now see
- Meaning
- What looked like white clouds surging like waves against the peaks of Mount Yoshino were, I now see, the treetops of the cherry blossoms.
- Commentary
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Book One Spring Poems 52
The white clouds that seemed to surge like waves on the peaks of Yoshino turn out to be the tops of cherry trees. Taking up the likeness of the celestial river's waves from the preceding poem, it paints the cherries by overlaying white clouds and waves.
First line, 'yoshinoyama', is the famous cherry site also sung in poems 29 and 47.
Second line, 'mine ni nami yoru', means as if waves were breaking on the peak, likening the clouds' movement to waves; the word wave links it to 'the River of Heaven's waves' in the preceding poem.
Third line, 'shirakumo to', likens cherries to white clouds, the same conceit as poem 36 and others.
Fourth line, 'miyuru wa hana no', begins to reveal the likeness.
Final line, 'kozue nari keri', means they were treetops, expressing the exclamation of discovery.
- Source
- Kinyo Wakashu
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Hatsuseyama kumoi ni hana no sakinureba ama no kawanami tatsu ka to zo miru
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Harugoto ni akanu nioi o sakurabana ika naru kaze no oshimazaruramu