Fuku kaze ni taenu kozue no hana yori mo todomegataki wa namida narikeri - Kinyo Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

吹く風に堪へぬ梢の花よりも
留めがたきは涙なりけり

Roma-ji: Fuku kaze ni taenu kozue no hana yori mo todomegataki wa namida narikeri
English Translation: Even more than the
blossoms on the swaying boughs
that cannot bear the wind,
what I find hardest to hold back
are these tears of mine, it seems
Meaning: Harder to hold back than the blossoms on the boughs that cannot withstand the blowing wind are my tears.
Commentary: Book Eleven Variant Poems 693

Harder to hold back than the blossoms that fall from the boughs, unable to bear the blowing wind, are the tears of love. Comparing them with falling flowers, the poem conveys the force of tears that overflow however one tries to stop them.
This poem is found only in a variant manuscript line of the anthology; in the variant order it is placed after 415 in Book Seven. Poem 416 in Book Seven, which follows, also overlays the dew on leaf tips with tears of love.

First line, 'fuku kaze ni', means to the blowing wind.
Second line, 'taenu kozue no', means of the boughs that cannot bear it, the branch tips whose flowers scatter in the wind.
Third line, 'hana yori mo', means more than the blossoms, the particle yori marking the standard of comparison.
Fourth line, 'todomegataki wa', means what is hard to hold back.
Final line, 'namida narikeri', means are my tears, the copula nari followed by the exclamatory keri.
Source: Kinyo Wakashu
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