ふるさとは吉野の山し近ければ
ひと日もみ雪降らぬ日はなし
ひと日もみ雪降らぬ日はなし
- Roma-ji
-
Furusato wa Yoshino no yama shi chikakereba
hitohi mo miyuki furanu hi wa nashi - English Translation
-
my old dwelling lies
so near to Mount Yoshino—
not even a day
passes without falling snow
gracing it from the heavens
- Meaning
- My old dwelling lies near Mount Yoshino—there is not a single day without the falling of snow.
- Commentary
-
Book Six Winter Poems
“Furusato” here does not mean one’s birthplace, but rather a former residence or an old capital.
“Miyuki” is an honorific expression for snow.
If the “old dwelling” is understood as being near Mount Yoshino, such as a former imperial residence, the poem evokes the beauty of snow falling upon a place now fallen into quiet decline.
- Author
- Unknown Poet
- Source
- Kokin Wakashu
- Other
-
- the falling snow must be melting even as it falls— for from the mountain the sound of rushing waters grows ever louder now
- even in this stream crimson leaves are flowing down— from the deep mountains the water from melting snow must now have greatly swelled
- at my humble dwelling snow falls thick and deep, and now no path can be seen— for there is no one at all to come and tread a way here
- when the snow falls down the grasses and hidden things that lie through winter— bear blossoms never seen in the coming days of springtime