Haru kite wa hana to mo miyo to Kataoka no matsu no uwaha ni awayuki zo furu

English Translation

Now that spring has come
take them for blossoms, it says
and on Kataoka's
upper leaves of the pine trees
the light snow is falling still

Meaning

Since spring has come, take these for blossoms: so the light snow falls on the upper needles of the pines at Kataoka.

Commentary

Book One Spring Poems I 19

Headnote: composed on the theme of lingering snow, among a hundred poems presented in the reign of Emperor Horikawa.
The subject is lingering snow, and the poem sees the light fall gathered on the pine needles as blossom. It comes from the same Horikawa sequences and the same topic as the tenth poem, so that two pieces on one topic stand in this book.
Fujiwara no Nakazane (1057-1118) was a poet of the late Heian period and one of the contributors to the Horikawa sequences. He wrote a treatise on poetic diction.
The season is early spring; the place is Kataoka in Yamato Province, a famous poetic site in what is now the Kitakatsuragi district of Nara Prefecture.
The occasion was the assigned topic of lingering snow.

The first line means: now that spring has arrived. It sets the condition for the imperative that follows.
The second line quotes an instruction, take these for blossoms, with a quotative particle, so that the snow itself seems to be speaking. Putting a command inside the quotation turns the scene into nature addressing a person.
The third and fourth lines place the snow on the upper needles of pines. Pine is evergreen and bears no flower, and only when something white settles on it can it look like one. Choosing a treeless of blossom is the point of the conceit.
An emphatic particle governs the attributive verb at the close. The thin spring snow named there vanishes quickly, and in that it resembles blossom too.
Seeing snow as blossom is an old device, but this poem recasts it as an instruction one is told to obey. It may be read alongside the thirteenth poem, where lingering snow was taken for human sleeves.

Author

Fujiwara no Nakazane

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other