Isonokami furuno no ozasa shimo o hete hitoyo bakari ni nokoru toshi kana

English Translation

At Isonokami,
the bamboo grass of Furu moor
has weathered the frost,
and now for one night, one joint more,
the year alone remains

Meaning

The bamboo grass on Furu moor at Isonokami has weathered night after night of frost, and now only a single night—a single joint—of the year remains.

Commentary

Book Six Winter Poems 698

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Topic unknown."
This is the eighth poem of the year's-end sequence. As the bamboo grass on Furu moor at Isonokami has weathered night after night of frost, the year too has only a single night left. The headnote continues from the preceding poem with no topic given, and the circumstances of composition are not recorded.
The author, "the Regent and Chancellor," is Fujiwara no Yoshitsune. A son of the Regent Kujō Kanezane, he rose to Regent and Chancellor and wrote the Japanese preface to the Shin Kokin Wakashū.
The scene is the night before the last day of the year, and the place is Furu moor at Isonokami in Yamato Province.
The direct occasion is not recorded.

The first line, "isonokami," is a pillow word modifying "Furu" and is also a place name in Yamato Province.
The second line, "furuno no ozasa," refers to the low bamboo grass growing on the moor of Furu at Isonokami, around present-day Tenri in Nara Prefecture.
The third line, "shimo o hete," means "having passed through nights of frost." As the grass has been exposed to frost night after night, so the days of the year have passed.
In the fourth line, "hitoyo bakari ni," "hitoyo" carries both "one night" and "one joint," the section of bamboo between nodes. "One joint" is an associated word for the bamboo grass of the second line.
The last line, "nokoru toshi kana," means "the year that remains," closing with the exclamatory particle "kana." Entrusting it to the scene of frosted bamboo grass on Furu moor, the poem sings of the feeling on the eve of the year's last day, when, like a single joint left on the grass, only one night of the year remains. The same land of Furu whose sacred cedars were buried in first snow in 660 of this book appears here as frosted bamboo grass at the very end of the year, so that within the winter book the scenery of Furu marks the passage of time.

Author

Fujiwara no Yoshitsune

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other