Uchinabiki haru wa kinikeri aoyagi no kage fumu michi ni hito no yasurau

English Translation

It trails on the wind
and so the spring has come now
for on the roadway
where the willow's shadow falls
the people are lingering

Meaning

Spring has come, trailing like the branches themselves; and on the road where the willow's shadow lies, people stop and rest.

Commentary

Book One Spring Poems I 69

Headnote: topic unknown.
Here begins the run on willow. The poem shows people halting beneath the trees and marks the coming of spring by human movement. The headnote gives no topic and nothing is known of the circumstances.
The poet, given by his office, is Fujiwara no Takato, a mid-Heian poet who served as Deputy Governor-General of Dazaifu and was accomplished in music.
The time is when the willows come into leaf; the place is a road lined with them.
The occasion of composition is not recorded.

The first line, with a rhythmic prefix, means to trail or stream. The swaying of willow branches and the spreading of spring meet in the one word.
The second line uses the flat declaration that ends the first, fourth and eighth poems, but places it early. The statement comes first and the details follow below.
The third and fourth lines give a road on which the willow's shadow lies. To speak of treading the shadow brings the shape of the branches on the ground into view.
The verb at the close means to halt, to hesitate, to rest. Spring is registered not by any feature of the season but by what people do, and that is the poem's distinction.
The previous poem likened the willow to thread; this one takes it by its shadow, and the run varies its handling.

Author

Fujiwara no Takato

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other