Sabishisa o ika ni seyo tote okabe naru nara no ha shidari yuki no fururan

English Translation

What would you have me do
with all this loneliness,
that on the hillside
the oak leaves droop so low
beneath the falling snow?

Meaning

What would you have me do with this loneliness, that the snow keeps falling until the oak leaves on the hillside droop beneath its weight?

Commentary

Book Six Winter Poems 670

Headnote: "Composed on 'Snow at a Cottage in the Fields.'"
This is the fourteenth poem of the snow sequence. Seeing snow fall until the oak leaves on the hillside droop, the speaker laments, asking what he is to do with this loneliness. According to the headnote, it was composed on the topic "Snow at a Cottage in the Fields."
The author, "Fujiwara no Kunifusa," is Fujiwara no Kunifusa. Nothing certain is recorded of his dates, lineage, or offices.
The scene is winter as the snow falls, and the place is a cottage in the fields beside a hill.
The direct occasion is the topic "Snow at a Cottage in the Fields."

The first line, "sabishisa o," means "this loneliness" of a cottage in the fields.
The second line, "ika ni seyo tote," means "what would you have me do?"—a question put to the snow.
The third line, "okabe naru," means "on the hillside," with "naru" as the attributive form of the auxiliary of existence "nari."
The fourth line, "nara no ha shidari," means "the oak leaves drooping." It describes the withered oak leaves that stay on the branches even in winter bending low under the weight of snow.
The last line, "yuki no fururan," means "why does the snow fall?" with "ran" as an auxiliary of present conjecture inquiring into cause, answering "ika ni seyo tote" in the second line. The poem laments the snow that keeps falling on a lonely cottage as if to deepen its loneliness, asking the snow its intent. Following the preceding poem's mountain village whose path is closed by leaves and snow, this poem sings of the loneliness of a snowbound cottage in the fields, and it shares with the snowy mountain village at dusk in 663 of this book the loneliness of lacking visitors amid the snow.

Author

Fujiwara no Kunifusa

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other