Azumaji no michi no fuyukusa shigeriaite ato dani mienu wasuremizu kana

English Translation

On the eastern road
the winter grasses by the way
have grown so thick
that not even a trace remains
of the forgotten stream

Meaning

On the road to the eastern provinces the winter grasses have grown so thick that not even a trace can be seen of the forgotten stream.

Commentary

Book Six Winter Poems 628

Headnote: "Sent to someone in the capital while I was in the eastern provinces."
This is the eighteenth poem of the frost-and-withering sequence. It sings of a forgotten stream whose very traces are hidden by the thick winter grasses along the eastern road, likening to it a self being forgotten by the people of the capital. According to the headnote, it was sent to someone in the capital while the author was in the eastern provinces.
The author, "Yasusuke-ō no Haha," was a lady-in-waiting, a daughter of Ise no Taifu, who became the wife of Prince Nobuzane and was so called because she bore Prince Yasusuke. Since her personal name is not recorded, the designation in the original is used.
The scene is winter, and the place is a road in the eastern provinces.
The direct occasion is sending a poem to someone in the capital while she was in the eastern provinces.

The first line, "azumaji no," means "of the road from the capital to the east," or "of the eastern provinces."
The second line, "michi no fuyukusa," refers to the grasses growing along the road in winter.
The third line, "shigeriaite," means "growing thick together" and runs to six syllables, one over the count.
In the fourth line, "ato dani mienu," "dani" is an adverbial particle meaning "even": "not even a trace can be seen."
The last line, "wasuremizu kana," closes with the exclamatory particle "kana." A "wasuremizu," forgotten stream, is water that trickles unnoticed through fields and the like, and through its name the speaker likens herself to one being forgotten by the people of the capital. In the water hidden without a trace beneath the winter grasses, she overlays her own plight in the distant east, where news from the capital grows scarce. Following the preceding poem's longing for a companion in a winter mountain village, a poem of longing for people in the far-off capital is set here.

Author

The Mother of Prince Yasusuke

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other