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> 春の終わり告げる 花御堂{はなみどう}  
>  霞む花 一枚{ひとひら}

This is from Time After Time, and translates to:

> The hanamidō tells us about the end of the spring,  
>  A petal from a misty flower.

How is the `petal` linked to the rest? Is it at all? Is it meant to be an
extra subject of `tsugeru`, along with `hanamidō`? And what does "misty
flower" mean?

UPDATE

After some thoughts, and some interactions with others online, I am pretty
much convinced that we're looking at an anastrophe, not a relative clause. I
have four theories:

  1. My original idea is that the petal is blurring up (kasumu) because the singer is tearing up because of the memories (cfr. next section); thus, the line would be equivalent to 花の花びらひとひらが霞む;
  2. On [Lyricstranslate](https://lyricstranslate.com/en/time-after-time-time-after-time-town-where-flowers.html), someone suggested that "kasumu" here is referring to the petal losing colour because it's the end of spring which is much later than when the Hanamidou is set up (April 8), so they're kinda withering away and becoming less bright in colour, which makes it grey/white like mist; that would explain how the Hanamidou is announcing the end of spring (as said in the other line quoted here);
  3. I then asked Quora, and [one answer](https://www.quora.com/In-Mai-Kurakis-Japanese-song-Time-after-time-there-is-the-line-Kasumu-HANA-hitohira-Is-that-petal-blurring-up-in-the-singers-eyes-because-the-singers-tearing-up-or-is-it-withering-and-thus-dimming-Otherwise-how/answer/Hara-Shidho) mentioned "hana kasumi", the hazy look of cherry blossoms in the distance, saying that we have that on one side, and the petal blurring up because of tears on the other; maybe we have two subjects here: flowers, for the hana kasumi, and one petal, because of the tears, so first we see hana kasumi, then we zoom into one petal, and the tearing up starts; hence, 花とひとひら［の花弁］が霞む;
  4. 1 and 3 both don't tell us how the Hanamidou is announcing the end of spring; perhaps we've got both petal-kasumu senses together? So the petal is kasumu-ing in two senses, the ones of 1 and 2, and then perhaps we also have a passing thought of hana kasumi as in 3?
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2014-08-10T12:18:41.267
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question
translation
Petal from a misty flower
「霞む花一枚」 is a very rhetorical expression which is unlikely to be seen except in
lyrics.

Grammatically, 「霞む花一枚」 is not strongly linked to something in the previous
line. It's a noun phrase, forming one sentence by its own. "A petal from a
misty flower."

I can't logically explain what "霞む花" (literally, _hazy_ or _misty_ flower)
means here. There is a plant called
[カスミソウ](http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%AB%E3%82%B9%E3%83%9F%E3%82%BD%E3%82%A6)
but it probably is irrelevant. And there is also a word
[花がすみ](http://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/leaf/jn2/178232/m0u/), which means full-
bloomed cherry blossoms looking like mist, but _full bloom_ is definitely not
what she wants to say in this nostalgic situation.

It seems to me that the person here is reminded of old memories by seeing the
flower. So it may be a kind of metaphor for the "vagueness" of the memory.

"枚" is not used to count a flower. "1枚の花" is incorrect in plain Japanese.
Instead, "枚" is used to count petals (1枚の花びら). So the best way to understand
"霞む花 一枚" is to assume an imaginary petal: "霞む花（の花びらが）一枚". That's what the
translator did.
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2014-08-12T06:23:51.130
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answer