Yata no no ni asaji irozuku arachiyama mine no awayuki samuku zo arurashi

English Translation

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

Meaning

On the plain of Yata the low reeds are turning color—up on the peaks of Mount Arachi, the light snow must be lying cold indeed.

Commentary

Book Six Winter Poems 657

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Topic unknown."
This is the first poem of the snow sequence. Seeing the low reeds on the plain of Yata turn color, the speaker infers that the light snow on the peaks of Mount Arachi must be bitterly cold. The headnote continues from the preceding poem with no topic given, and the circumstances of composition are not recorded.
The author, "Hitomaro," is Kakinomoto no Hitomaro. A Man'yō poet who served at the courts of Empress Jitō and Emperor Monmu, he was revered in later ages as the Sage of Poetry and is one of the Thirty-Six Poetic Immortals.
The scene is the beginning of winter when the low reeds turn color, and the places are the plain of Yata and Mount Arachi.
The direct occasion is not recorded.
This poem was collected without an author's name in Book Ten of the Man'yōshū and is taken in the Shin Kokin Wakashū as a work of Hitomaro.

The first line, "yata no no ni," means "on the plain of Yata."
The second line, "asaji irozuku," means "the low reeds turn color." The poem breaks after the second line.
The third line, "arachiyama," names a poetic place in Echizen Province, Mount Arachi on the border of Echizen and Ōmi.
The fourth line, "mine no awayuki," refers to light snow on the peaks.
The last line, "samuku zo arurashi," closes with the inferential auxiliary "rashi," answering the particle "zo," meaning "it must be cold." "Rashi" infers from evidence, and the poem takes the reddening of the low reeds on the plain before the speaker as grounds for inferring the cold of the snow on distant peaks. Like the preceding poem, which inferred hail on the peaks of Hira from the chill of the wind at Karasaki, it continues the pattern of knowing winter in the distance from the scene close at hand, and marks the shift from the hail sequence to the snow sequence.

Author

Kakinomoto no Hitomaro

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other