み狩すと鳥立の原をあさりつつ
交野の野辺に今日も暮らしつ
交野の野辺に今日も暮らしつ
- Roma-ji
-
Mikari su to todachi no hara o asaritsutsu katano no nobe ni kyō mo kurashitsu
- English Translation
-
Out for the royal hunt,
searching through the fields
where the birds rise,
on the moors of Katano
again I spent the day
- Meaning
- Out on the royal hunt, searching the fields where the birds rise up, I have spent yet another whole day on the moors of Katano.
- Commentary
-
Book Six Winter Poems 686
Headnote: "For a poetry contest at my house when I was Palace Minister."
This is the second poem of the winter-hunt sequence. Searching the fields where the birds rise for the royal hunt, the speaker has spent yet another day on the moors of Katano. According to the headnote, it was composed for a poetry contest at his house when he was Palace Minister.
The author, "the Hōshōji Lay Monk, Former Regent and Chancellor," is Fujiwara no Tadamichi. A son of the Regent Fujiwara no Tadazane, he served as Regent, Chancellor, and Grand Minister, and late in life took holy orders and lived at Hōshōji. He was the father of Jien.
The scene is the close of a winter hunting day, and the place is Katano in Kawachi Province.
The direct occasion is a poetry contest held at his house when he was Palace Minister.
The first line, "mikari su to," means "saying we will hunt," with "mi" as an honorific prefix.
In the second line, "todachi no hara o," "todachi" means a place in falconry where birds gather and take flight, and the line refers to the fields where such places lie.
The third line, "asaritsutsu," means "searching for game," with "tsutsu" expressing continuance.
The fourth line, "katano no nobe ni," means "on the moors of Katano," a poetic place in Kawachi Province held to be a royal hunting ground. It is the same place as "the royal fields of Katano" in the preceding poem.
The last line, "kyō mo kurashitsu," means "again I spent the day," with "tsu" as a perfective auxiliary. "Kyō mo," today too, shows days passed absorbed in the hunt. Where the preceding poem sang of the tension at the start of a hunt at Katano as hail fell, this poem sings of a whole day spent hunting until dusk, so that the same hunt at Katano is set side by side at its beginning and its end.
- Author
- Fujiwara no Tadamichi
- Source
- Shin Kokin Wakashu
- Other
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- 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
- On the royal fields of Katano, where the hunt is held, the hail comes pattering— hush now! Lest too soon the birds take flight
- The hunting moor is buried as the snow keeps falling on it; no bird-haunts can be seen, the grasses hidden deep
- Hunting all day long, I break brushwood of Katano and spread it for a seat, and gaze upon the moon above the shallows of the Yodo