Kokinshu #92

A poem from the poetry contest held in the palace of the consort in the Kanpyô era.

    I'll never again
plant a flowering tree.
    When spring begins,
people learn to imitate
how their colors fade away.

—21 May 2011

Original by Sosei. When I said in #89 that we were through with cherry blossoms, I was hedging a bit: many of the unspecified flowers of book 2 are flowering trees -- and some even clearly cherries. But if there isn't an explicit sakura, I don't have to understand it that way. Just by way of disclosing my biases here. Contrariwise, compared to the literal-meaning-only of "color" in #90, here a double-meaning of affections is essential. Contrast with #49, where the cherry trees teach each other the bad habit of changing, and #34, where plum trees are sworn off because they deceive the speaker.


hana no ki mo
ima wa hori-ueji
haru tateba
usturou iro ni
hito naraikeri

---L.