Aoyagi no ito naranedomo harukaze no fukeba katayoru wagami narikeri

English Translation

I am no green thread
of willow — and yet, when the
spring wind blows, this self
of mine turns out to be one
that leans away to one side

Meaning

I am no green willow-thread; and yet when the spring wind blows, this self of mine turns out to be one that leans to one side.

Commentary

170 A Body That Leans

While the Consultant Korehira held the rank of Captain, he served as steward to the late Prince of the Ministry of Ceremonial, and being constantly in attendance there he was on familiar terms with the household. Coming away from the palace one day he caught a chill and fell ill. The Lady of Hyōe prepared medicinal wine and something to eat and sent them to him. In his reply he said how glad he was of her enquiry, and that it was extraordinary that one should catch such a complaint; and added "Aoyagi no ito naranedomo harukaze no fukeba katayoru wagami narikeri". Her reply was "Isasame ni fuku kaze ni ya wa nabikubeki nowaki sugushishi kimi ni ya wa aranu". That is the whole of the section.
The Consultant Korehira is Fujiwara no Korehira, who rose to that office; a Captain was a second officer of the Palace Guards. The late Prince of the Ministry of Ceremonial headed that ministry, and a steward managed the affairs of such a household. The Lady of Hyōe takes her name from the Palace Guards.
The setting is his sickbed, having caught a chill on his way from the palace. The spring wind tells us the season.
What prompted the poem was her sending him medicinal wine and food. It went with his reply.
She answered with a poem of her own, and the exchange closes the section.

The green thread of willow is the old way of taking the hanging branches for thread; it appears in the third section as well.
The second line means: not being that, and yet. He is no willow and behaves like one.
The word for the wind also carries the sense of a chill caught, so that the spring wind and his illness are heard together; and the verb means to lean to one side — a willow bending, and a sick man's body giving way.
The closing marks the recognition: so this is what he is. Having caught a chill on the road, he states it as a willow bending in the wind, so that his thanks for her enquiry double as a report on his health. That leaning is what her reply will fasten on.

Source

Yamato Monogatari

Other