Usukukoki nobenomidorino wakakusani atomademiyuru yukinomuragie

English Translation

Pale here, deep there,
on the green of the young grass
across the meadow
even the traces can be seen
where the snow melted in patches

Meaning

On the young grass of the meadow, green now pale and now deep, one can still see the very traces of where the snow melted away in patches.

Commentary

Book One: Odoro no Shita

Go-Toba, the eighty-second sovereign, was the fourth son of Takakura. After the Taira fled west with the child emperor Antoku, the Cloistered Emperor Go-Shirakawa summoned his grandsons to look at them; the third prince wept and would not go near him, but the fourth prince climbed at once onto his knee and seemed fond of him, so the Cloistered Emperor exclaimed that here was a true grandson, and in the eighth month of Juei 2 set him on the throne at the age of four. The sacred sword had gone down into the sea with the former emperor, so that for the first time an accession took place without the three regalia. After the Cloistered Emperor's death Go-Toba ruled in his own right; the realm was at peace and the way of poetry flourished. In Kenkyu 9, at nineteen, he abdicated to Tsuchimikado and began his cloistered rule, building a villa at Minase where he spent himself on the pleasures of the seasons. He held the poetry contest in fifteen hundred rounds, established the Bureau of Poetry, had the Shinkokinshu compiled, and held its celebratory banquet in Genkyu 2. In Jogen 4 he set Tsuchimikado aside and raised Juntoku to the throne, and Juntoku too gave himself to poetry. At Minase the retired emperor played go and small archery, explained the old precedent of the stakes, and had a guardsman prepare the dish described by Murasaki Shikibu—in everything he showed the range of his gifts. At the selected poetry contest of Kempo 2, Fujiwara no Hideyoshi of the Northern Guard was called on for nine poems; the Yoshimizu bishop Jien offered the retired emperor a long poem, and Teika wrote a long poem in reply on the spot. The new retired emperor Tsuchimikado composed a hundred poems privately, showed them to Ietaka and Teika, and exchanged poems with Teika.
Go-Toba's personal name was Takahira; he was the fourth son of Takakura, and his mother was Shichijoin, daughter of Nobutaka, Master of the Office of Palace Repairs. Tsuchimikado's personal name was Tamehito, and his mother was Shomeimon'in, daughter of the priest Noen and adopted daughter of the Inner Minister Michichika. Juntoku's personal name was Morinari, and his mother was Shumeimon'in. The regent Kujo Yoshitsune was called a saint of poetry, and the compilers of the Shinkokinshu were Michitomo, Ariie, Teika, Ietaka and Masatsune. The Middle Counselor Kanemitsu, Fujiwara no Kanemitsu, and the Middle Counselor Sukezane, Fujiwara no Sukezane, were each called on for screen poems at an accession thanksgiving. Kunaikyo was descended from Emperor Murakami through the Minister of the Left Toshifusa, and was the daughter of a man who died holding only the fourth rank. Fujiwara no Hideyoshi served in the retired emperor's Northern Guard, and the Yoshimizu bishop Jien was a poet-monk who long held the office of Tendai abbot.
Before the compiling of the Shinkokinshu, Go-Toba held the poetry contest in fifteen hundred rounds and chose only the finest pieces. Masters of the art served as judges; the retired emperor took part but, saying he could not rise to that level, wrote no judgements in prose and marked his preferences only through poems. Because the sovereign had mastery of the art, those below him knew the temper of the times, and there were many good poets among both men and women.
At that contest the retired emperor said that the others were all seasoned practitioners with settled reputations, that Kunaikyo was still untried but seemed by no means poor, and that she should be sure to compose well enough to do him credit. She flushed and stood there with tears in her eyes. Of the hundred poems she then submitted, this is the one singled out.
The narrator remarks that to infer from the shades of green how early or late last year's snow melted is a conception a novice could scarcely arrive at, and laments that she died young, wondering how she might have moved even unseen spirits had she lived longer. This poem earned her the name Kunaikyo of the young grass.
The poem is included in the first book of spring poems in the Shinkokinshu.

The opening pair of adjectives sets pale against deep, and reaches the young grass by way of the meadow green in the second line. The particle in the third line places the sight upon the grass. In the fourth line the word for even marks a limit: not the snow itself but the traces of it are what can be seen, which is the deeper perception. The poem closes on a noun, patchy melting, answering the pale and deep of the opening, so that the uneven green of the grass reflects the uneven melting of the snow—an inference held in the structure rather than stated. Past snow no longer before the eye is reckoned backward from the present colour of the grass; the picture is sharply visual and the conception thoroughly reasoned, and both live in the one poem.

Author

Kunaikyo

Source

Masukagami

Other