Toya kaeru Taka no Oyama no tamatsubaki shimo oba futomo iro wa kawaraji

English Translation

The molted hawk's name,
on Taka-no-o Mountain,
the fair camellia—
though it pass through the frosts,
its color will never change.

Meaning

The fair camellia on Taka-no-o Mountain, named for the hawk that molts in its mews, will not change its color even though it passes through the frosts.

Commentary

Book Seven Felicitation Poems 750

Headnote: "Composed on Taka-no-o Mountain for a screen for the Great Thanksgiving Festival of Kanji 2."
This is the fourth poem of the sequence of Great Thanksgiving Festival poems. The fair camellia on Taka-no-o Mountain, named for the molting hawk, will not change its color even through the frosts. According to the headnote, it was composed on Taka-no-o Mountain painted on a screen for the Great Thanksgiving Festival of Kanji 2.
Born into a family of scholars, the author served as Provisional Middle Counselor and Provisional Governor-General of Dazaifu and was called Gōsochi.
The scene is the season of frost, and the place is Taka-no-o Mountain painted on the screen.
The direct occasion is a poem written for a screen prepared for the Great Thanksgiving Festival of Kanji 2 (1088).
Tamatsubaki is an elegant name for the camellia. The Zhuangzi mentions a great tree, the dachun, for which eight thousand years were one spring and eight thousand years one autumn, and the camellia was sung as a tree celebrating longevity.

The first line, "toya kaeru," describes a hawk shut in its mews to molt, and here it leads to "taka," hawk, in the place name of the second line.
The second line, "Taka no Oyama no," is a place name painted on the festival screen, introduced as a name connected with the hawk of the first line.
The third line, "tamatsubaki," is an elegant name for the camellia. With its evergreen leaves, it is set as a tree of longevity.
The fourth line, "shimo oba futomo," means "even though it passes through frost," with "tomo" expressing a concessive supposition. It points to the frosty season when plants change color.
In the last line, "iro wa kawaraji," "ji" expresses negative conjecture: "its color will not change." Like "has not changed" in 712 in this book and "its color changes not" in 716, it entrusts permanence to an unchanging color. Leading in with words tied to the hawk in the first two lines, it closes on the evergreen camellia.

Author

Oe no Masafusa

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other