聞く人ぞ涙は落つる帰る雁
鳴きて行くなる曙の空
鳴きて行くなる曙の空
- Roma-ji
-
Kiku hito zo namida wa otsuru kaeru kari nakite yuku naru akebono no sora
- English Translation
-
Those who hear them weep
and the tears come falling down
the geese going home
and crying out as they go
in the sky at break of day
- Meaning
- It is those who hear them whose tears fall: the geese are going home, crying as they go, somewhere in the sky at daybreak.
- Commentary
-
Book One Spring Poems I 59
Headnote: composed and sent for a poetry contest held by Yorisuke, Minister of Justice.
The second poem in the run on returning geese. The previous poem gave the forlornness to the birds; this one moves the tears to those who hear them. The headnote records that it was written and sent for a contest held by Yorisuke.
This is Shunzei's fourth appearance in the book, after the fifth, fifteenth and sixteenth poems. Fujiwara no Yorisuke (1112-1186), who held the contest, served as Minister of Justice.
The time is a spring daybreak; no place is given.
The occasion was submission to the contest.
An emphatic particle in the first line governs the attributive verb in the second: it is the hearers, not the birds, who weep. Where the previous poem gave the geese human feeling, this one takes that back and returns the feeling to people.
The third line names the subject.
The auxiliary in the fourth line marks inference from sound. The birds are not seen; only their cries reach the listener.
The poem closes on the same dawn sky as the poem before. The two share an ending while standing opposed in point of view, the birds' side and the hearers'.
Building a scene out of hearing alone also links this poem to Ietaka's seventeenth.
- Author
- Fujiwara no Shunzei
- Source
- Shin Kokin Wakashu
- Prev Poem
-
Ima wa tote tanomu no kari mo uchiwabinu oborozukiyo no akebono no sora
- Next Poem
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Furusato ni kaeru karigane sayo fukete kumoji ni mayou koe kikoyu nari