Hyakunin Isshu: Meet the Poets
Lay Novice and former Chancellor

Meaning

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

"Furi-yuku" means both "to scatter" (for falling petals) and "to age/pass" (for a person growing old). The storm-blown garden scene — petals scattering like snow — is suddenly revealed as a metaphor for the speaker's own aging. The twist arrives quietly at the final phrase: "it is I who have grown old."

Kintsune (Lay Novice and former Chancellor) was a politically adept court noble who maintained good relations with both the imperial court and the Kamakura shogunate. He was the father-in-law of Shogun Sanetomo (poem 93). He became a Buddhist lay novice in old age. This poem is his quiet meditation on mortality and transience.

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