み狩する交野の御野に降る霰
あなかままだき鳥もこそ立て
あなかままだき鳥もこそ立て
- Roma-ji
-
Mikari suru katano no mino ni furu arare anakama madaki tori mo koso tate
- English Translation
-
On the royal fields
of Katano, where the hunt is held,
the hail comes pattering—
hush now! Lest too soon
the birds take flight
- Meaning
- Hail pattering down on the royal hunting fields of Katano—hush now! The birds may take flight before the time has come.
- Commentary
-
Book Six Winter Poems 685
Headnote: "When he commanded hundred-poem sequences."
This is the first poem of the winter-hunt sequence. As hail falls on the royal fields of Katano where the hunt is held, the speaker bids it be quiet lest the birds take flight too soon. According to the headnote, it was composed when Retired Emperor Sutoku commanded poets to present hundred-poem sequences.
The author, given as "a poem of Retired Emperor Sutoku," is Emperor Sutoku. A son of Emperor Toba, after abdicating he was defeated in the Hōgen Disturbance, exiled to Sanuki, and died there. He commanded Fujiwara no Akisuke to compile the Shika Wakashū.
The scene is a winter hunting day with hail falling, and the place is Katano in Kawachi Province.
The direct occasion is the hundred-poem sequences that Retired Emperor Sutoku commanded poets to present.
The first line, "mikari suru," means "where the royal hunt is held," with "mi" as an honorific prefix.
The second line, "katano no mino ni," names a poetic place in Kawachi Province, fields around present-day Hirakata and Katano in Osaka Prefecture. It was held to be a royal hunting ground, and "mino" means fields belonging to the imperial house.
The third line, "furu arare," closes on a noun, and the poem breaks after the third line.
In the fourth line, "anakama madaki," "anakama" is a word of rebuke meaning "how noisy—be quiet." "Madaki" means "before the proper time."
The last line, "tori mo koso tate," closes with the perfective "tate," answering the particles "mo koso," and expresses the fear that the birds might take flight. The poem is a witty one that, fearing the birds sought in the hunt will be startled by the sound of hail into flying off too soon, calls on the hail to be quiet. It moves from the snow sequence to the winter-hunt sequence, and the hail sung in 655 and 656 of this book returns as part of the hunting scene. The next poem, 686, likewise sings of hunting at Katano.
- Author
- Emperor Sutoku
- Source
- Shin Kokin Wakashu
- Other
-
- In these days of ours neither blossoms nor bright leaves remain upon the boughs— do not melt away so soon, white snow upon the pines
- Grass and trees alike lost from sight in the whirling of the falling snow— yet there comes the fragrance of plum blossoms waiting for spring
- Out for the royal hunt, searching through the fields where the birds rise, on the moors of Katano again I spent the day
- The hunting moor is buried as the snow keeps falling on it; no bird-haunts can be seen, the grasses hidden deep