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Kokinshu #49
Written on seeing flowers bloom for the first time on a cherry planted at someone's house.
So starting this year
you've come to understand spring --
O cherry blossoms,
would that you never be taught
the meaning of scattering.
kotoshi yori
haru shirisomuru
sakurabana
chiru to iu koto wa
narawazaranamu
---L.
So starting this year
you've come to understand spring --
O cherry blossoms,
would that you never be taught
the meaning of scattering.
—4 November 2010
Original by Ki no Tsurayuki. And with the plum flowers reduced to memories, we move on to cherry blossom season -- which will last for even more poems than plum flowers. So sit back for a while. Like ume no hana, sakurabana ("cherry-flower") exactly fills a 5-syllable line and so rarely has a grammatical marker in poetry. Here it is almost certainly a direct address.kotoshi yori
haru shirisomuru
sakurabana
chiru to iu koto wa
narawazaranamu
---L.