Hatsuharu no hatsune no kyō no tamabahaki te ni toru kara ni yuraku tama no o

English Translation

In the early spring,
the first Day of the Rat, today,
the jeweled broom—
as soon as I take it in hand,
the jewels on their cord chime.

Meaning

On this first Day of the Rat in the early spring, the moment I take the jeweled broom in my hand, the jewels strung upon its cord sway and ring against one another.

Commentary

Book Seven Felicitation Poems 708

Headnote: "Topic unknown."
This is the first poem of the sequence on the first Day of the Rat in the New Year. Taking up the jeweled broom of that day, the speaker hears its ornamental jewels sway and chime. The headnote gives no topic, and the circumstances of composition are not recorded.
No author's name is given in this anthology. In the Man'yōshū, the poem is attributed to Ōtomo no Yakamochi.
The scene is the first Day of the Rat in the First Month, and the place is a celebration at the palace where jeweled brooms are bestowed.
The direct occasion is not recorded in this anthology, but according to Book Twenty of the Man'yōshū, it was a banquet held at the palace on the third day of the First Month of Tenpyō Hōji 2 (758), when jeweled brooms were bestowed.
On the first Day of the Rat there was a rite of sweeping the silkworm rooms with a jeweled broom to pray for sericulture, and a Day of the Rat broom inscribed with the date of the First Month of Tenpyō Hōji 2 survives in the Shōsōin. The Man'yōshū gives the poem as Yakamochi's and notes that it was not presented.

The first line, "hatsuharu no," means "of the early spring." The character for "first" is repeated in the next line, impressing the auspiciousness of the New Year.
The second line, "hatsune no kyō no," means "of today, the first Day of the Rat." Repeating "no" three times from the first line, the phrases pile up toward the jeweled broom.
The third line, "tamabahaki," is a broom adorned with jewels. It is a ritual implement of the first Day of the Rat, and the chain of "no" converges on this word.
In the fourth line, "te ni toru kara ni," "kara ni" means "as soon as." The very moment of taking it in hand is captured.
The last line, "yuraku tama no o," ends on a noun. It describes the jewels on their cord swaying, touching, and ringing. The sound and the trembling carry the festive brightness of the new spring. The next poem, 709, also takes up the Day of the Rat, so that two poems of New Year celebration follow one another.

Author

Unknown Poet

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

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