浦ちかく降りくる雪は白浪の
末の松山こすかとぞ見る
末の松山こすかとぞ見る
- Roma-ji
-
Ura chikaku furikuru yuki wa shiranami no
Sue no Matsuyama kosu ka to zo miru - English Translation
-
near the seashore
the falling snow drifts down—
and it appears as though
white waves might overpass now
Sue no Matsuyama
- Meaning
- Near the shore, the falling snow seems as though white waves might rise and cross over Sue no Matsuyama.
- Commentary
-
Book Six Winter Poems
This poem was composed for a poetry contest in the imperial consort’s quarters during the Kanpyō era.
The expression “waves crossing Sue no Matsuyama,” often used as a metaphor for something impossible, is here evoked by the sight of snow falling and piling near the shore, resembling white waves.
Sue no Matsuyama, now in present-day Tagajō in Miyagi, is a well-known scenic place. The poem may also allude playfully to an earlier poem that uses this image to swear unchanging love.
- Author
- Fujiwara no Okikaze
- Source
- Kokin Wakashu
- Other
-
- white snow falling down without choosing where it lies— covering all alike even upon the rocky crags it seems that flowers bloom there
- on fair Yoshino the mountain snow must be piled— for in the old capital the cold grows ever deeper more than it was before
- on fair Yoshino through the mountain’s deep white snow he made his way in— yet from that man who entered no word has come at all
- in mountain villages where white snow has fallen deep and lies heaped upon— even those who dwell there now may feel their thoughts fade away