Ki no Tsurayuki: 樺桜

かにはざくら

かづけども波の中にはさぐられで風吹くごとに浮き沈む玉

貫之

427  今古和歌集

Taken in Vancouver, B.C.

Birch cherry tree

I dive in with hope

To find the middle of the wave.

It eludes me; gusts of wind

Cause them to rise and fall

Those jewels of sakura!

Ki no Tsurayuki

427 Kokinshuu

Taken in Vancouver, B.C.

As I mentioned before Ki no Tsurayuki was the compiler of the kokinshuu and is one of the best poets in the collection. I found this poem to be especially interesting for a number of reasons. First, it is in the miscellaneous section but the topic is "Birch cherry tree" which is a kind of sakura or cherry tree but it has birch like bark. Sakura is usually used as a seasonal word referring to spring. I did some research but I couldn't find any of significance to birch sakura. 

Another interesting thing is that he does not actually directly use sakura in the poem itself. You can read the poem as just being about him diving into a pond or some body of water and not finding the center of a wave, but then why would the topic elude to sakura? If you separate the Japanese into the 5-7-5-7-7 syllable pattern it is written in, it would look like this: 

Taken in Vancouver, B.C.

Topic: かにはざくら

かづけども

波の中に

はさぐられで

風吹くごとに

浮き沈む玉

Now this is the romanization:

Topic: kanihazakura

Kadukedomo

Nami no Naka ni

Ha Sagurarede

Kazefuku Gotoni

Ukidushimutama

If you read this literally then there is no mention of sakura but now look at it again with my emphasis:

Kadukedomo

Nami no Naka ni

Ha Sagurarede

Kazefuku Gotoni

Ukidushimutama

So compare the bold parts: "ka ni ha sa gu ra" with the topic "ka ni ha za ku ra". It's very close right? Just a couple consonant sounds are switched. This is why this poem is in the miscellaneous section and not in the spring section. Ki no Tsurayuki is playing with the meter and using some poetic tricks. He's really just showing off but it is pretty interesting. That is why I included sakura in the English translation even though it is not directly read this way. Also, the "jewels of sakura" are meant to be petals of from the cherry blossoms. Ki no Tsurayuki was one tricky bastard and I like his poetry but I think he lacked the genius that some of the poets came after him possessed such as Fujiwara no Teika and Saigyo.

Also taken in Vancouver, B.C.