Kyō yori wa ogi no yakehara kakiwakete wakana tsumi ni to tare o sasowamu

English Translation

From today, then, I
shall push my way through the burnt
reed-fields — and to come
and gather the young herbs with
me, who is there I should ask

Meaning

From today I shall push my way through the burnt reed-fields to gather young herbs. And who is there I should ask to come with me?

Commentary

86 Young Herbs

Early in the First Month, Taira no Kanemori called at the Major Counsellor's residence, and in the middle of their talk he was told, in passing, to make a poem; so he composed "Kyō yori wa ogi no yakehara kakiwakete wakana tsumi ni to tare o sasowamu". The Major Counsellor, impressed, answered with "Kataoka ni warabi moezu wa tazunetsutsu kokoroyari ni ya wakana tsumamashi". That is the whole of the section.
Taira no Kanemori is one of the thirty-six poetic immortals; he exchanges poems with the Lady of Hyōe in the fifty-sixth section and with Taira no Nakaki's daughter in the fifty-seventh, the fifty-eighth tells of his time in Michinoku, and in the seventy-second he composes on the Teiji palace. A Major Counsellor stood next below the Minister of the Right in the Council of State.
The setting is the Major Counsellor's residence early in the First Month, the season for gathering young herbs.
What prompted the poem was being told, in passing during their talk, to compose one — an improvisation on the spot.
The Major Counsellor was impressed and answered with a poem of his own, and the exchange closes the section. This poem was later included in the Gosen-shū.

The first line takes the occasion itself — the opening days of the year — and turns it into the beginning of spring.
The burnt reed-fields are fields cleared by fire; young herbs were held to come up on such ground, so that the burning and the herbs belong together.
The third line means pushing the grass aside as one goes, and puts a figure out in the field.
The closing asks whom he should ask to come. Gathering young herbs was something done in company, and the question is about that companion. Composed as an entertainment, it can also be read as an invitation to the man in front of him, and that is presumably what impressed the Major Counsellor.

Source

Yamato Monogatari

Other