Ishibashiru hatsuse no kawa no namimakura hayaku mo toshi no kurenikeru kana

English Translation

Rushing over rocks,
the river of Hatsuse—
pillowed on its waves,
how swiftly, like its current,
the year has reached its end

Meaning

Pillowed on the waves of the Hatsuse River as it rushes over the rocks, I find the year has come to its end as swiftly as that current runs.

Commentary

Book Six Winter Poems 703

Headnote: "Composed on the spirit of the year's end and sent when the Lay Monk Former Regent had hundred-poem sequences composed."
This is the thirteenth poem of the year's-end sequence. Like the swift current of the Hatsuse River rushing over the rocks, the year has already come to its end. According to the headnote, it was composed on the spirit of the year's end and sent when Kujō Kanezane had poets compose hundred-poem sequences.
The author, "the Later Tokudaiji Minister of the Left," is Fujiwara no Sanesada. A son of the Minister of the Right Fujiwara no Kinyoshi, he rose to Minister of the Left. He was called the Later Tokudaiji Minister of the Left to distinguish him from his grandfather Fujiwara no Saneyoshi, the Tokudaiji Minister of the Left.
The scene is the end of the year, and the place is beside the Hatsuse River in Yamato Province.
The direct occasion is composing on the spirit of the year's end and sending it for the hundred-poem sequences that Kujō Kanezane had poets compose. "Lay Monk Former Regent" is a title for Kanezane, who later became Regent and took holy orders.

The first line, "ishibashiru," means "rushing over the rocks."
The second line, "hatsuse no kawa no," means "of the Hatsuse River," which flows through Hatsuse in Yamato Province. Hatsuse is the site of Hasedera, and it was sung as a place on the pilgrim's road.
The third line, "namimakura," means a traveler's sleep with the sound of waves at one's pillow. It suggests sleeping on the road on a pilgrimage to Hatsuse.
The fourth line, "hayaku mo toshi no," means "so swiftly, the year." The upper verse's scene of the Hatsuse River rushing along works as a preface leading to "hayaku," swiftly.
The last line, "kurenikeru kana," means "has come to its end," with "ni" perfective, "keru" the attributive form of the exclamatory auxiliary "keri," and "kana" an exclamatory particle. Overlaying the swiftness of a river rushing over rocks with the swiftness of passing time, the poem sings of the surprise of finding oneself already at the year's end. Like 694 in this book, which sang of time's swiftness through "the horse passing a gap," it entrusts the speed of time to something that flows past, and it turns from the lament of old age in the preceding poem to time itself flowing away.

Author

Fujiwara no Sanesada

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other