Nobe mireba obana ga moto no omoigusa kareyuku fuyu ni nari zo shinikeru

English Translation

Looking at the fields,
the brooding-grass that grew
beneath the plumed reeds—
it has come to winter now
when it too withers away

Meaning

As I look over the fields, I see that it has become winter, when even the brooding-grass beneath the plumed pampas withers away.

Commentary

Book Six Winter Poems 624

Headnote: "Topic unknown."
This is the fourteenth poem of the frost-and-withering sequence. Looking over the fields, the speaker sees that it has become winter, when even the brooding-grass beneath the plumed pampas withers. The headnote gives no topic, and the circumstances of composition are not recorded.
The author, "Izumi Shikibu," is Izumi Shikibu. A daughter of the Governor of Echizen Ōe no Masamune, she became the wife of the Governor of Izumi Tachibana no Michisada, from which she took the name Izumi Shikibu, and later served Empress Shōshi.
The scene is winter as the grasses wither, and the place is fields where plumed pampas grows.
The direct occasion is not recorded.
The pairing of brooding-grass growing beneath plumed pampas is also sung in the Man'yōshū.

The first line, "nobe mireba," means "when I look over the fields," with "ba" attached to the perfective form expressing an established condition.
In the second line, "obana ga moto no," "obana" means pampas grass in plume: "at the foot of the plumed pampas."
The third line, "omoigusa," brooding-grass, is a plant that grows as a parasite at the roots of pampas and the like, identified with the Aeginetia. Because of its name, it was sung as a grass akin to a brooding heart.
The fourth line, "kareyuku fuyu ni," means "to the winter when things wither," marking the season when the brooding-grass withers.
The last line, "nari zo shinikeru," means "it has come to be," a kakari-musubi construction in which "zo" is answered by "keru," the attributive form of the past auxiliary "keri." The poem knows the coming of winter by the withering of the brooding-grass that bloomed in the autumn fields. Following 617 in this book, which sang of a field of grass withered past recognition, and 618, which sang of pampas left uncut, it sings of the grasses of the fields as they wither.

Author

Izumi Shikibu

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other