In Wakégōri, a district of the province of Iyo, there is a very ancient and famous cherry-tree, called Jiu-roku-zakura, or “the Cherry-tree of the Sixteenth Day,” because it blooms every year upon the sixteenth day of the first month (by the old lunar calendar),—and only upon that day.
JIU-ROKU-ZAKURA by Lafcadio Hearn
とてもふるく ゆうめいな いっぽんのサクラのきがある。
そのきは １がつ１６にちに さく。
- subject:
- 一本のサクラの木が
- predicate:
- 咲く
Thus the time of its flowering is the Period of Great Cold,—though the natural habit of a cherry-tree is to wait for the spring season before venturing to blossom.
そのサクラがさくのは さむい じきだ。
- predicate:
- 寒い時期だ
But the Jiu-roku-zakura blossoms with a life that is not—or, at least, that was not originally—its own.
ジュウロクザクラは いのちをつかって さく。
- modifier:
- 命を使って
There is the ghost of a man in that tree.
そのきには、ゆうれいがいる。
- subject:
- 幽霊が
He was a samurai of Iyo; and the tree grew in his garden; and it used to flower at the usual time,—that is to say, about the end of March or the beginning of April.
かれは いよの サムライだった。
He had played under that tree when he was a child; and his parents and grandparents and ancestors had hung to its blossoming branches, season after season for more than a hundred years, bright strips of colored paper inscribed with poems of praise.
かれの いちぞくは せんぞだいだい そのきに たんざくを つるしてきた。
- modifier:
- その木に短冊を
短冊（たんざく, paper strip）
The Japanese word “たんざく” refers to a small vertical strip of paper used for writing wishes, poems, or decorative messages. It is most commonly seen during the Tanabata festival, where people write their wishes on colorful tanzaku and hang them on bamboo branches. The term can also be used in calligraphy or poetry contexts when writing short verses on slender paper.
He himself became very old,—outliving all his children; and there was nothing in the world left for him to love except that tree.
かれは としおいた。
だいじなものが のこっていなかった。あのサクラをのぞいて。
- predicate:
- 年老いた
- 残っていない
And lo! in the summer of a certain year, the tree withered and died!
あるとしのなつに、そのきが しんだ！
- modifier:
- ある年の夏に
Exceedingly the old man sorrowed for his tree.
そのろうじんは なげきかなしんだ。
- predicate:
- 嘆き悲しむ
Then kind neighbors found for him a young and beautiful cherry-tree, and planted it in his garden,—hoping thus to comfort him.
りんじんが かれのために わかいサクラを うえた。
- subject:
- 隣人が
And he thanked them, and pretended to be glad.
かれは よろこぶ フリをした。
But really his heart was full of pain; for he had loved the old tree so well that nothing could have consoled him for the loss of it.
ほんとうは かれのこころは いたみでいっぱいだった。
- subject:
- 彼の心は
At last there came to him a happy thought: he remembered a way by which the perishing tree might be saved. (It was the sixteenth day of the first month.)
かれは サクラをたすけるほうほうを おもいだした。
- modifier:
- サクラを助ける方法を
Along he went into his garden, and bowed down before the withered tree, and spoke to it, saying: “Now deign, I beseech you, once more to bloom,—because I am going to die in your stead.”
「もういちど さいてくれ。
わたしが あなたのかわりに しぬ」
- modifier:
- あなたの代わりに
(For it is believed that one can really give away one’s life to another person, or to a creature or even to a tree, by the favor of the gods;—and thus to transfer one’s life is expressed by the term migawari ni tatsu, “to act as a substitute.”)
じぶんのいのちは ほかのひとへ うつすことができる。
- predicate:
- 移す
Then under that tree he spread a white cloth, and divers coverings, and sat down upon the coverings, and performed hara-kiri after the fashion of a samurai.
かれは そのきのしたで ハラキリを おこなった。
- modifier:
- その木の下で
And the ghost of him went into the tree, and made it blossom in that same hour.
かれは サクラを さかせた。
And every year it still blooms on the sixteenth day of the first month, in the season of snow.
いまでも そのサクラは １がつ１６にちに かいかする。