Oshinabete konome mo haru no asamidori matsu ni zo chiyo no iro wa komoreru

English Translation

Everywhere alike
buds swell on trees in springtime,
a pale, tender green—
but in the pine alone the hue
of a thousand ages dwells.

Meaning

All alike, the buds swelling on the trees are the pale green of spring, yet in the pine alone the color of a thousand ages lies held.

Commentary

Book Seven Felicitation Poems 735

Headnote: "Composed on the theme 'The Pine Has Spring Color' when people first offered poems at the Kyōgoku mansion."
This is the second poem of the sequence on the buds of plants and trees in spring. The buds of every tree are alike the pale green of spring, but in the pine alone the color of a thousand ages is held. According to the headnote, it was composed on the topic "The Pine Has Spring Color" when people first offered poems at the Kyōgoku mansion.
The author is Fujiwara no Yoshitsune, a son of Kujō Kanezane. He rose to Regent and Chancellor and wrote the kana preface of the Shin kokin wakashū.
The scene is spring, when the trees bud, and the place is the Kyōgoku mansion.
The direct occasion is a composition on the topic "Shō yū shunshoku," that is, "The Pine Has Spring Color," at the first poetry gathering held at the Kyōgoku mansion.

The first line, "oshinabete," means "all alike, everywhere." 747 in this book uses the same word in its third line and likewise sings of the color of pines.
In the second line, "konome mo haru no," "haru" is a pivot word meaning both that tree buds swell and the season of spring. It takes up the same pivot word as "me mo haru ni" in the preceding poem, 734, so two budding poems follow one another.
The third line, "asamidori," is pale green, the color of newly opened leaves. The sense pauses here.
In the fourth line, "matsu ni zo chiyo no," "zo" is an emphatic particle. Among trees all pale green, it singles out the pine: in the pine alone.
The last line, "iro wa komoreru," means "the color is held within," closing the kakari-musubi with "ru," the attributive form of the continuative "ri." The topic "The Pine Has Spring Color" is rendered through the contrast between the pale green of young leaves and the thousand-year green of the pine. It takes the same closing form as "kazu zo komoreru" in 725 in this book.

Author

Fujiwara no Yoshitsune

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other