KKS 57
Text
桜の花のもとにて、年の老いぬることを歎きてよめる
Under the cherry blossoms, he lamented his age and read this
紀友則
色も香も同じ昔にさくらめど年ふる人ぞあらたまりける
|
iro mo ka mo |
In color and scent |
Notes
- They seem to bloom now
- This line is the subject of a fair amount of commentary. Most commentators accept that the line is hiding sakura (cherry blossoms), and that the unusual phrasing of the line may even have been forced to create that word. This latter analysis is based on the difficulty of explaining what "seem to bloom" actually means. According to Shinzenshū, this is used because Tomonori does not visit the tree every year. Takeoka says it makes the poetic expression feel more real.
- Changing into something new
- Although this word is often associated with the spring renewal of life, here it indicates the "replacement" of the younger Tomonori by an older person, or perhaps specifically to "new" things like white hair or wrinkles.
Other sources:
Analysis
This poem seems to be a direct "translation" of a Chinese couplet by the poet 劉廷芝 (Liú Tíngzhī) included in the Wakan rōeishū (poem 791):
年々歳々花アヒ似タリ 歳々年々人同ジカラズ
Through the many years the flowers are the same, through the many years the people are not the same.
(The full poem can be seen here). This direct translation may account for the somewhat "rough" second line, which in some alternate sources is replaced by a smoother mukashi nagara which has the same meaning. There are several other parallel Chinese poems with the same general idea but this seems to be the most direct analogue.
A number of scholars questioned the placement of the poem here. It not seem to fit with the poems before and after it, and a few commenters wanted this placed in the miscellaneous volume instead. The best attempt at fitting this in comes from the Jikidenkai: We move from the far away view of the flowers in the previous poem, to the close-up view in this poem, and then the breaking off of a branch in the next poem.
