冬深くなりにけらしな難波江の
青葉まじらぬ葦の群立ち
青葉まじらぬ葦の群立ち
- Roma-ji
-
Fuyu fukaku narinikerashi na naniwae no aoba majiranu ashi no muradachi
- English Translation
-
Winter has grown deep,
so it seems, for at Naniwa Inlet
not one green leaf
is mingled any longer
in the standing clumps of reeds
- Meaning
- Winter must have grown deep, for in the clumps of reeds standing at Naniwa Inlet not a single green leaf remains among them.
- Commentary
-
Book Six Winter Poems 626
Headnote: "When I presented ten poems to Retired Emperor Sutoku."
This is the sixteenth poem of the frost-and-withering sequence. Seeing that no green leaves remain among the clumps of reeds at Naniwa Inlet, the speaker knows that winter has deepened. According to the headnote, it was composed when ten poems were presented to Retired Emperor Sutoku.
The author, "Major Counselor Narimichi," is Fujiwara no Narimichi. A son of Fujiwara no Munemichi, he rose to Major Counselor and was renowned as a master of kemari football.
The scene is the deepening of winter, and the place is Naniwa Inlet in Settsu Province.
The direct occasion is the presentation of ten poems to Retired Emperor Sutoku.
The first line, "fuyu fukaku," means "winter deeply."
The second line, "narinikerashi na," means "it seems to have become so." "Kerashi" is a contraction of "keru rashi," expressing inference from evidence, and "na" is an exclamatory particle. The poem breaks after the second line, and the lower verse gives the evidence.
The third line, "naniwae no," names a poetic place in Settsu Province, sung as an inlet thick with reeds.
The fourth line, "aoba majiranu," means "with no green leaves mingled," showing that every leaf has withered.
The last line, "ashi no muradachi," closes on a noun, naming reeds standing in clumps. Following the preceding poem, which heard the wind in the withered leaves of the reeds at Naniwa, this poem catches the same reeds by sight, inferring the depth of winter from the absence of a single green leaf. The withered reeds caught by ear in the preceding poem and by eye in this one form a pair of poems on the reeds of Naniwa.
- Author
- Fujiwara no Narimichi
- Source
- Shin Kokin Wakashu
- Other
-
- Looking at the fields, the brooding-grass that grew beneath the plumed reeds— it has come to winter now when it too withers away
- In the land of Tsu, was the springtime of Naniwa only a dream? Over the withered leaves of reeds I hear the wind go by
- If only there were another who could bear such loneliness— we would set our huts side by side in this mountain village in winter
- On the eastern road the winter grasses by the way have grown so thick that not even a trace remains of the forgotten stream