Karikurashi katano no mashiba orishikite yodo no kawase no tsuki o miru kana

English Translation

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

Meaning

Having hunted the whole day long, I break off brushwood at Katano, spread it for a seat, and gaze at the moon over the shallows of the Yodo River.

Commentary

Book Six Winter Poems 688

Headnote: "Composed on the spirit of falconry."
This is the fourth poem of the winter-hunt sequence and the last of that sequence. After hunting all day, the speaker breaks brushwood at Katano for a seat and gazes at the moon over the shallows of the Yodo. According to the headnote, it was composed on the spirit of falconry.
The author, "Middle Captain of the Left Kinhira," is Fujiwara no Kinhira. He was a courtier of the late Heian period who served as Middle Captain of the Left Palace Guards.
The scene is a winter night after the hunt, and the places are Katano in Kawachi Province and the Yodo River in Yamashiro Province.
The direct occasion is composing on the spirit of falconry as a topic.
A scene after hunting at Katano also appears in The Tales of Ise, in the poem Ariwara no Narihira composed when hunting near the Nagisa Palace at Katano: "Karikurashi tanabatatsume ni yado karamu Ama no kawara ni ware wa kinikeri" (Having hunted all day, I shall seek lodging from the Weaver Maiden, for I have come to the River of Heaven).

The first line, "karikurashi," means "having hunted all day," the same words as the first line of Narihira's poem in The Tales of Ise.
The second line, "katano no mashiba," refers to brushwood growing at Katano, with "ma" as an honorific prefix. The same hunting ground of Katano as in the poems before is sung.
The third line, "orishikite," means "breaking and spreading it," describing making a seat in the fields after the hunt.
The fourth line, "yodo no kawase no," means "of the shallows of the Yodo River," which flows through Yamashiro and Settsu Provinces.
The last line, "tsuki o miru kana," closes with the exclamatory particle "kana." It sings of the elegant close of a day that passes from hunting to moon-viewing: after the day's hunt, one sits in the fields and gazes at the moon over the river at night. The poems of hunting at Katano that began with 685 in this book, passing from a start amid hail, to a hunt lasting until dusk, to a hunting ground buried in snow, are closed by this poem's moon after the hunt.

Author

Fujiwara no Kinhira

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other