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Audio: NHK Creative Library
Read by LibriVox volunteer Larry Wilson.
Audio courtesy of LibriVox (Public Domain).
入道前太政大臣
花さそふ
嵐の庭の
雪ならで
ふりゆくものは
わが身なりけり
ふりゆくも
のはわかみ
なりけり
はなさ
- Poem 96
- 花さそふ
嵐の庭の
雪ならで
ふりゆくものは わが身なりけり
Author: Lay Novice and former Chancellor of the Realm (1171–1244)
Source: Shin Chokusen Wakashū, Miscellaneous
- English Verse Translation
- This snow is not from blossoms white Wind-scattered, here and there, That whiten all my
garden paths And leave the branches bare; 'Tis age that snows my hair!
— William N. Porter, 1909
- Modern Translation
- It is not the snow of blossoms scattered by the storm in the garden — it is I myself who am fading with the years.
- Commentary
- The headnote in the Shin Chokusen Wakashū reads, "composed on falling blossoms." Watching the beautiful cherry blossoms scatter like snow, Kintsune seems to have reflected, with deep feeling, that even at the very height of glory, having gained everything one could wish for, there is no escaping the advance of age.
- About the Poet
- The Lay Novice and former Chancellor of the Realm, Saionji Kintsune, married a niece of Minamoto no Yoritomo and built close ties with the Kamakura shogunate. During the Jōkyū War, although nominally on the side of the imperial court, he secretly informed the shogunate of Retired Emperor Go-Toba's plans for rebellion — a service for which he was later promoted all the way to Chancellor of the Realm. He built the lavish Saion-ji Temple in the Kitayama district of Kyoto, and lived a life of extraordinary splendor.
- Lay Novice and former Chancellor of the Realm's Chart of the Heart
-
A chart and a modern-language reflection of the poet's inner feelings.
The Poet's Feelings (A Personal Interpretation)
Watching the cherry blossoms scatter like snow,
I feel the passing of time.
The blossoms will bloom again —
but this aging self of mine will not return.
- Poem Illustration
-
This image is based on an illustration from William N. Porter's A Hundred Verses from Old Japan, his 1909 English translation of the Hyakunin Isshu published in England, colorized and reworked using Adobe Firefly (generative AI).