[35] ひとは (Hitowa)

 Poem Meaning and Background

Plum blossoms outside Ishiyama-dera in Shiga, photo by me

ひとはいさ・こころもしらず・ふるさとは

hito wa isa・kokoro mo shirazu・furusato wa

はなぞむかしの・かににほひける

hana zo mukashi no・ka ni nioi keru

~ 紀 貫之 (Ki no Tsurayuki)

Translation

The depths of the hearts

Of humankind cannot be known.

But in my birthplace

The plum blossoms smell the same

As in the years gone by.

Meaning

Here the poet strikes a comparison between the fickle and changeable essence of human hearts to the more reliable and consistent nature of, well... nature. It's said that the poet composed this poem somewhat spontaneously, on an occasion when he was staying at an inn near his home which he had not visited in quite a few years. When the innkeeper was chiding him for staying away for so long, he plucked a branch from a plum tree blossoming in the yard of the inn and recited this poem as a response. 

As a retort, it is said that the innkeeper came up with their own poetic response: 

花だにもおなじ心に咲くものを植ゑたる人の心しらなむ (source)

Translation (mine):

The plum blossoms may indeed bloom just the same, but I wish you would try to understand the heart of the person who planted that tree. 

The poem by Tsurayuki starts with Hito wa, which can be taken to mean the innkeeper who he is addressing, or more broadly, "humankind". The second line in the Japanese translates to さあ、（あなたの）心はどうかわからないが, which in English means roughly, I don't know about your heart (whether it has changed). When the author talks about his birthplace, he is specifically talking about Nara, which is also the former capital of Japan. In the last line, the author is saying that the smell of the plum blossoms remains unchanged, but the phrase にほふ(niou) also means that the flowers are blossoming beautifully. 

Author

Tsurayuki by Kikuchi Yōsai

Ki no Tsurayuki (c. 868 ~ 945) was the principle compiler of the Kokin Wakashū, an imperial poetry anthology first conceived by Emperor Uda. His son, Emperor Daigo, was the one who ordered four poets to curate and publish this anthology in 905. Ki no Tsurayuki wrote the Japanese preface to this anthology, and he is also considered to have posed as a female to write Japan's oldest known diary, the "Tosa Diary" (though it was published anonymously). The diary chronicles a journey taken in 935, returning to Kyoto from Tosa Province, which is where Tsurayuki had held office as the provincial governor from 930~935. Tsurayuki is also named in the Tale of Genji as a master of waka poetry.

Ki no Tsurayuki is also a cousin of Ki no Tomonori, author of poem [33] Hisa. Since Tomonori also helped to compile the Kokin Wakashū, but died before its completion, the anthology also contains a eulogy for Tomonori composed my Tsurayuki.