When I composed many poems about falling blossom.

ちよくとかやくだすみかどのいませかしさらばおそれてはなやちらぬと

choku to ka kudasu mikado no imase kashi saraba osorete hana ya chiranu to

O, that an august command To bestow a sovereign I would there be! Then out of dread The blossom might not scatter…[i]

106

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[i] Saigyō’s poem here is thought to be referring obliquely to a tale, contained in Kojidan 古事談 (‘Tales ofAncient Matters’; 1212-15), a collection of tales compiled by Minamoto no Akikane 源顕兼 (1160-1215),  that Emperor Shirakawa was once caught in the rain during a Buddhist service and, stating that it was a sin for the rain to fall at such times, had the raindrops collected in a pot and ordered that they be confined there (Gotō 1982, 38).