KKS 73
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Text
[Topic unknown]
[Poet unknown]
うつせみのよにもにたるか花桜さくと見しまにかつちりにけり
|
utsusemi no |
This fleeting world |
Notes
- This fleeting world
- The word utsusemi originally referred to the world of humans. Although it was originally unrelated to the word semi (cicada), by the early Heian period it had been reinterpreted that way, helped by the idea of the hollow shell that the cicada casts off. Here it seems to be used just a pillow word for yo (world) and probably has no connection to the cicada. The connection of the word to emptiness or the "fleeting" world also seems to be a later idea although one that seems to be present here.
- The cherry tree
- In most of the poems the cherry is represented as sakura or sakurabana. The use of hanazakura here is unusual, and there seems to be a division of opinion in both pre-modern and modern commentary. One theory is that this represents a certain kind of cherry tree, and the other is that it is simply a poetic term for a regular cherry. Keichū (Yozaishō) has a particularly lengthy analysis of the term but his conclusion is somewhat evasive.
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