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Kokinshu #73
(Topic unknown.)
How they resemble
our cicada-shell world!
-- even while we watch
the cherry blossoms flower,
they're already scattering.
Another picture that reminded the photographer of this poem.
utsusemi no
yo ni mo nitaru ka
hanazakura
saku to mishi ma ni
katsu chirinikeri
---L.
How they resemble
our cicada-shell world!
-- even while we watch
the cherry blossoms flower,
they're already scattering.
—6 February 2011
(Original author unknown.) Utsusemi no ("of/like a cicada-shell") is a stock epithet for the world -- the idea being the Buddhist one that human existence is as empty and ephemeral as the discarded final juvenile molt of a cicada. The cherry blossoms (here reversed as hanazakura instead of sakurabana, for no reason I can explain) again could be address, exclamation, or unmarked topic/subject.Another picture that reminded the photographer of this poem.
utsusemi no
yo ni mo nitaru ka
hanazakura
saku to mishi ma ni
katsu chirinikeri
---L.