Hyakunin Isshu Oracle

No.96 入道前太政大臣(西園寺公経)「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」

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

入道前太政大臣(西園寺公経)

it looks like snow falling — it is me, getting older

it looks like snow falling — it is me, getting older

キーワードKeywords

Petal StormNot SnowAgingFallingGarden
★★ Miscellaneous

入道前太政大臣(西園寺公経)Saionji Kintsune — No. 96 公卿Court Noble

A chancellor who built a villa in the northern hills — the site that later became the Golden Pavilion.

はなさそふ あらしのにはの ゆきならで ふりゆくものは わがみなりけり

Hana sasou Arashi no niwa no Yuki narade Furiyuku mono wa Waga mi nari keri

現代語訳Modern Japanese

コンセプトConcept

情景The Scene

Wind takes the blossom off the trees and the garden fills with white — not snow, though it looks like it. He watches the fall and revises the subject: the thing actually going down here is himself.

日本の美意識Japanese Aesthetic

Kakekotoba (Layered Word)

One verb covers both “to fall” and “to grow old,” so the scene and the self decline together. A pivot word lets a poem change its subject without changing its image.