KKS 51
Text
[Topic unknown]
[Poet unknown]
山桜我が身に来れば春霞嶺にも尾にも立ち隠しつつ
|
yamazakura |
The mountain cherries |
Notes
- Mountain cherries
- These are simply cherry trees in the mountains, not a particular type of tree.
Other sources:
Analysis
This poem combines the spring images of the cherry blossoms and the haze -- as in the previous poem, we are concerned with the early blooming mountain cherries. The poem has an accusatory tone. Despite the lack of any explicit emotional words, the annoyance of the poet at not being able to clearly see the cherry blossoms comes through, especially in the final tsutsu which suggests that this has happened more than once. Katagiri says that the first two lines are also directed towards the cherries in annoyance, suggesting they are participating in the problem. He links this to a kind of "wandering around aimlessly in nature" poem that is found in mid-Heian era poetry.
The use of waga before a verb in the second line represents a style older than that of the early 10th century, indicating that this fits with the so-called "anonymous poet era" of the 9th century.
There is a close relation with this poem and the previous one: they are both anonymous poems on mountain cherries, and both contain a first-person pronoun that accentuates the role of the speaker in the scene.
