松風の音せざりせば藤波を
何にかかれる花と知らまし
何にかかれる花と知らまし
- Roma-ji
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Matsukaze no oto sezariseba fujinami o nani ni kakareru hana to shiramashi
- English Translation
-
Had the wind in the pines
never made a sound at all,
the wisteria waves,
on what they hung and bloomed,
how could I have ever known
- Meaning
- Had the wind in the pines not sounded, how could I have known on what the waves of wisteria were hanging?
- Commentary
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Book One Spring Poems 84
The wisteria covers the pine so thickly that the tree cannot be seen, but the poet learns from the sound of wind in the pines that the wisteria hangs upon one. Knowing the unseen through sound, it resonates with poem 27, where returning geese are known by their cries.
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, 'matsukaze no', uses matsukaze, wind blowing through the pines.
Second line, 'oto sezariseba', is counterfactual, had it made no sound, pairing with mashi in the final line.
Third line, 'fujinami o', uses fujinami, wisteria clusters, the same word as at the end of poem 81.
Fourth line, 'nani ni kakareru', means on what it hangs, showing that the pine is hidden by the flowers.
Final line, 'hana to shiramashi', means how could I have known it as a flower, expressing through the counterfactual that he could not.
- Author
- Ryōzen
- Source
- Kinyo Wakashu
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