Tago no ura ni uchiidete mireba shirotae no fuji no takane ni yuki wa furitsutsu

English Translation

Coming out upon
the shore of Tago, I gaze—
and pure white
on the lofty peak of Fuji
the snow keeps falling

Meaning

Coming out onto the shore of Tago, I look out and see the snow falling on and on over the pure white peak of Mount Fuji.

Commentary

Book Six Winter Poems 675

Headnote: "Topic unknown."
This is the nineteenth poem of the snow sequence. Coming out onto the shore of Tago, the speaker sees snow falling on and on over the pure white peak of Mount Fuji. The headnote gives no topic, and the circumstances of composition are not recorded.
The author, "Akahito," is Yamabe no Akahito. A court poet of the Nara period who excelled in poems of natural scenery, he was later ranked with Kakinomoto no Hitomaro as a Sage of Poetry and is one of the Thirty-Six Poetic Immortals.
The scene is winter, and the place is the shore of Tago in Suruga Province, looking toward Mount Fuji.
The direct occasion is not recorded.
In Book Three of the Man'yōshū this poem appears as an envoy to a long poem by Yamabe no Akahito, in the form "Tago no ura yu uchiidete mireba mashiro ni zo Fuji no takane ni yuki wa furikeru" (Coming out from the shore of Tago, I saw how pure white the snow had fallen on the high peak of Fuji). It was also chosen for the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu.

The first line, "tago no ura ni," names a poetic place in Suruga Province, the coast along Suruga Bay in present-day Shizuoka Prefecture, and runs to six syllables, one over the count.
The second line, "uchiidete mireba," means "coming out where the view opens and looking," and runs to eight syllables, one over the count.
The third line, "shirotae no," means "pure white," showing the whiteness of the snow on the high peak of Fuji in the fourth line.
The fourth line, "fuji no takane ni," means "on the high peak of Mount Fuji."
The last line, "yuki wa furitsutsu," means "the snow keeps falling," with "tsutsu" expressing continuance and trailing off to leave a lingering resonance. The poem sings, as a vast distant view, of the whiteness of Fuji's peak that fills the eye the moment one steps out onto the shore and of the snow still falling there. From the desolate scene of Shiogama Bay in Michinoku with its smoke put out in the preceding poem, the view from a shore moves to the grand prospect of Fuji seen from the shore of Tago in Suruga.

Author

Yamabe no Akahito

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other