よそにては惜しみに来つる花なれど
折らではえこそ帰るまじけれ
折らではえこそ帰るまじけれ
- Roma-ji
-
Yoso nite wa oshimi ni kitsuru hana naredo orade wa e koso kaerumajikere
- English Translation
-
From a distance, I
came regretting they should fall,
these blossoms, and yet
without breaking off a bough
I can hardly go back home
- Meaning
- I came here from afar regretting that these blossoms should fall, and yet now I can hardly go home without breaking off a branch.
- Commentary
-
Book One Spring Poems 54
The poet came to see the blossoms out of regret at their falling, yet seeing them close he cannot go home without breaking off a branch, and he frankly admits this contradiction. The poem shows a conflict between wanting to spare the flowers and wanting to hold them.
The author, Gyōson, was a Tendai monk and a son of the Consultant Minamoto no Motohira. He trained at Onjōji, was known for ascetic practice in the mountains such as Ōmine, and later rose to Grand Archbishop.
First line, 'yoso nite wa', means while I was far away, the same opening as poem 43.
Second line, 'oshimi ni kitsuru', means having come to grieve over their falling.
Third line, 'hana naredo', is concessive, heightening the contradiction between the feeling above and the act below.
Fourth line, 'orade wa e koso', uses e with a negative to mean hardly able, and koso closes on the perfective form in the final line.
Final line, 'kaerumajikere', means it seems I cannot go back, closing with the perfective form of the negative conjectural maji.
- Author
- Gyōson
- Source
- Kinyo Wakashu
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