降る雪にまことに篠屋いかならん
今日は都に跡だにもなし
今日は都に跡だにもなし
- Roma-ji
-
Furu yuki ni makoto ni shinoya ika naran kyō wa miyako ni ato dani mo nashi
- English Translation
-
In the falling snow,
how must it be, truly,
with your bamboo hut?
Today in the capital
not even a footprint shows
- Meaning
- In this falling snow, how must it truly be with your bamboo hut? Here in the capital today, there is not so much as a footprint to be seen.
- Commentary
-
Book Six Winter Poems 659
Headnote: "Reply."
This is the third poem of the snow sequence. Answering Senzai's question in the preceding poem, the speaker wonders how the bamboo hut must truly be faring, when even in the capital the snow shows not a single footprint. According to the headnote, it is a reply to the preceding poem.
The author, "Mototoshi," is Fujiwara no Mototoshi. A son of the Minister of the Right Fujiwara no Toshiie, he was a great-grandson of Fujiwara no Michinaga. A leading figure of the poetic world, he guided Fujiwara no Shunzei.
The scene is a snowy morning, and the place is the capital.
The direct occasion is replying to the preceding poem, 658, sent by Senzai on a snowy morning.
The first line, "furu yuki ni," means "in the falling snow," taking up "furu" of "hatsuyuki ya furu" in the preceding poem.
The second line, "makoto ni shinoya," means "truly, your bamboo hut," taking up "shinoya no noki zo uzumoruru" in the preceding poem and granting that it must indeed be buried.
The third line, "ika naran," means "how must it be?" with "n" as a conjectural auxiliary. The poem breaks after the third line.
The fourth line, "kyō wa miyako ni," takes the fourth line of the preceding poem as it stands.
The last line, "ato dani mo nashi," means "not even a trace of passers-by," with "dani" as an adverbial particle meaning "even." To the preceding poem's question whether the first snow is falling in the capital too, it answers that even in the capital the snow lies so deep that no footprint shows, so your bamboo hut must be buried deep indeed. In the form of an exchange that answers by taking up the other's very words, it shows friends each concerned for the depth of the other's snow.
- Author
- Fujiwara no Mototoshi
- Source
- Shin Kokin Wakashu
- Other
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- 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?
- The first snow falls and the sacred cedars of Furu lie buried deep; the fields bound with sacred ropes have shut themselves in for winter
- The longer one lives, the more one's sorrows grow— not knowing such a world, into this ruined garden the first snow falls and settles