About this work
Set beside the Meguro River during cherry-blossom season, this poem follows a solitary speaker through the festival crowd. A drifting petal becomes an image of a heart carried away after love, while remembered words continue to sound in the present.
Parallel reading
日本語と英語で読む
Read the Japanese original and its English translation together. On smaller screens, each language follows in sequence.
日本語原文 Japanese original
桜吹雪の目黒川
今年も賑わうけれど
東横線の駅からひとり降りて
川沿いを人混みに紛れ歩く私
美しい満開の桜だけど
私の心は目黒川に落ちた
一枚の花びら。
流されて 流されて
ゆらゆらと何処までも
後ろ姿に悲しみの影をひいて
ひとり歩く とぼとぼと
桜吹雪舞う目黒川
花びら風に舞って私の髪に絡むの
淡い色の薄桃の優しい色は
まるで貴方の言葉みたいね
耳に残って今も消えないわ
嘘ならいらない、もういらないのに
幻の貴方の言葉が聞こえてくるわ
愛している、愛している奈緒と・・・
桜吹雪舞う目黒川沿い
後ろ姿に寂しさの影をひく女が
ひとり歩く とぼとぼと
English translation 英訳
AI-assisted English translation. The Japanese original remains authoritative.
Cherry blossoms whirl above Meguro River.
Crowds gather again this year,
yet I step down alone from the Toyoko Line station
and walk beside the river, lost among the people.
The cherry trees are beautiful in full bloom,
but my heart is a single petal
fallen into Meguro River.
Carried away, carried away,
swaying on and on, wherever the current leads;
a shadow of sorrow trailing behind me,
I walk alone, slowly, wearily.
Cherry blossoms whirl above Meguro River.
A petal dances on the wind and catches in my hair.
Its pale, tender pink
is just like your words.
They still ring in my ears; they will not fade.
If they were lies, I do not want them—yet
I hear again the phantom of your voice:
“I love you, I love you, Nao...”
Along the Meguro River, where cherry blossoms whirl,
a woman walks with a shadow of loneliness trailing behind her,
alone, slowly, wearily.
Original wording, author credits, notes and source materials are preserved there.