春日山都の南しかぞ思ふ
北の藤波春にあへとは
北の藤波春にあへとは
- Roma-ji
-
Kasugayama miyako no minami shika zo omou kita no fujinami haru ni ae to wa
- English Translation
-
Mount Kasuga stands
to the south of the capital, and so
it thinks, like its deer:
that the wisteria of the north
may meet with its springtime.
- Meaning
- Mount Kasuga, south of the capital, thinks just so—that the wisteria of the north may meet with spring.
- Commentary
-
Book Seven Felicitation Poems 746
Headnote: "Composed on the spirit of 'Spring Felicitation' when I held a poetry contest at my house."
This poem celebrates the prosperity of the Fujiwara clan. Mount Kasuga, south of the capital, also thinks so: that the wisteria of the north may meet with spring. According to the headnote, it was composed on the spirit of "Spring Felicitation" when a poetry contest was held at the poet's house.
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, and the place is the capital, with Mount Kasuga imagined to its south.
The direct occasion is a composition on the topic "Spring Felicitation" at a poetry contest held at Yoshitsune's house.
Mount Kasuga is a mountain in Yamato Province, at whose foot stands the Kasuga Shrine, the tutelary shrine of the Fujiwara clan, and deer are regarded as messengers of the Kasuga deity. The source poem is by the monk Kisen in the Kokin wakashū, "Waga io wa miyako no tatsumi shika zo sumu yo o Ujiyama to hito wa iu nari," and the phrase "shika zo" is borrowed from it.
The first line, "Kasugayama," is the mountain behind the Kasuga Shrine, which enshrines the tutelary deity of the Fujiwara. The mountain of the clan's guardian god is set at the opening.
The second line, "miyako no minami," means "south of the capital." Taking up "miyako no tatsumi," southeast of the capital, from the source poem, it follows its form of naming a direction.
In the third line, "shika zo omou," "shika" is a pivot word joining "shika," thus, and "shika," the deer that serve the Kasuga deity. The emphatic particle "zo" is concluded by the attributive form "omou," and the sense breaks after the third line.
The fourth line, "kita no fujinami," means "the wisteria clusters of the north," referring to the Northern House of the Fujiwara. It pairs with "south" in the second line, creating a contrast of directions in which Mount Kasuga to the south thinks of the wisteria to the north.
The last line, "haru ni ae to wa," means "that it may meet with spring," placing the content of "shika" in the third line afterward in inversion. Likening the prosperity of the Northern House to spring, the poem celebrates the clan god's wish for the family's springtime. Yoshitsune himself came from the Northern House, and at his own house's contest he celebrates the flourishing of his lineage.
- Author
- Fujiwara no Yoshitsune
- Source
- Shin Kokin Wakashu
- Other
-
- At seventy full, like the beach pine of Mitsu, you have grown old, yet what remains to a thousand years stretches farther still ahead.
- Eight hundred days' walk, the fine sand along that beach, for my lord's long reign count it as the number of years, O guardian of the offshore isle.
- Ever green and firm, Kibi's Middle Mountain stands, covered all alike— awaiting a thousand years, pines of such a deep, deep color.
- Where the red dawn glows, in the village of Asahi, the sun-shade moss grows— for the Feast of Abundant Light it surely will be the garland.