さざなみや志賀の唐崎風冴えて
比良の高嶺に霰降るなり
比良の高嶺に霰降るなり
- Roma-ji
-
Sazanami ya shiga no karasaki kaze saete hira no takane ni arare furu nari
- English Translation
-
Rippling waters—
at Karasaki of Shiga
the wind blows chill,
and on the lofty peaks of Hira
the hail must be falling
- Meaning
- At Karasaki in Shiga, by the rippling lake, the wind blows bitterly cold—hail must be falling on the high peaks of Hira.
- Commentary
-
Book Six Winter Poems 656
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Topic unknown."
This is the second poem of the hail sequence and the last of that sequence. Feeling the chill of the wind at Karasaki in Shiga, the speaker infers that hail must be falling on the high peaks of Hira. The headnote continues from the preceding poem with no topic given, and the circumstances of composition are not recorded.
The author, "the Hōshōji Lay Monk, Former Regent and Chancellor," is Fujiwara no Tadamichi. A son of the Regent Fujiwara no Tadazane, he served as Regent, Chancellor, and Grand Minister, and late in life took holy orders and lived at Hōshōji. He was the father of Jien.
The scene is winter with hail falling, and the places are Karasaki in Shiga and Mount Hira in Ōmi Province.
The direct occasion is not recorded.
The first line, "sazanami ya," is a pillow word modifying "Shiga," the area along the southwestern shore of Lake Biwa.
The second line, "shiga no karasaki," names a poetic place in Ōmi Province, a cape jutting into Lake Biwa in present-day Ōtsu.
The third line, "kaze saete," means "the wind blowing chill."
The fourth line, "hira no takane ni," means "on the high peaks of Mount Hira," which rises along the western shore of Lake Biwa.
In the last line, "arare furu nari," "nari" is an inferential auxiliary. Taking the chill of the wind felt at Karasaki on the lakeshore as its grounds, the poem imagines hail falling on the distant peaks of Hira, holding both the near view of Karasaki and the far view of Hira in one poem. Where the preceding poem heard with the ear the hail striking oak leaves, this poem infers hail on distant peaks from the coldness of the wind, and two poems sharing the last line "arare furu nari" stand side by side.
- Author
- Fujiwara no Tadamichi
- Source
- Shin Kokin Wakashu
- Other
-
- In Yoshino, where the Natsumi River lies in a still pool, the wild ducks can be heard crying in the shadow of the hills
- Over my bedchamber it spreads one sheltering bough— outside the house, on the broad-leaved oak I hear the hail come down
- On the plain of Yata the low reeds turn their color; on Mount Arachi the light snow upon the peaks must lie there cold indeed
- More than ever before the eaves of my bamboo hut lie buried deep; today in the capital is the first snow falling too?