み山路に今朝や出でつる旅人の
笠白妙に雪積もりつつ
笠白妙に雪積もりつつ
- Roma-ji
-
Miyamaji ni kesa ya idetsuru tabibito no kasa shirotae ni yuki tsumoritsutsu
- English Translation
-
On the mountain road
did he set out just this morning,
that traveler there?
His hat has turned snowy white
as the snow keeps piling on.
- Meaning
- Did that traveler set out on the deep mountain road only this morning? The snow keeps piling on his hat until it is pure white.
- Commentary
-
Book Ten Travel Poems 928
Headnote: "Topic unknown."
This is the first of a sequence of poems on snow on a journey. Wondering if the traveler set out on the mountain road only this morning, the speaker sees snow piling on his hat until it is pure white, the figure of a traveler on a snowy mountain road. The headnote gives no topic, and the circumstances of composition are not recorded.
No author is named, and the poem continues from the preceding one as a work of Minamoto no Tsunenobu. A noble of the late Heian period, he rose to Senior Second Rank and Major Counselor and was called the Katsura Major Counselor.
The scene is a winter morning with falling snow, on the deep mountain road the traveler is taking.
The direct occasion is not recorded.
The first line, "miyamaji ni," means "on the deep mountain road." "Mi" is an honorific prefix.
The second line, "kesa ya idetsuru," means "did he set out this morning?" The particle "ya" is answered by the perfective "tsuru" in the attributive form.
The third line, "tabibito no," means "of the traveler." It presents the traveler passing before the viewer's eyes. Where 902 imagines the mountain crossing of one seen off, this poem actually sees a traveler on the mountain road.
The fourth line, "kasa shirotae ni," means "his hat pure white." "Shirotae" means white cloth, and also a pure white color.
The last line, "yuki tsumoritsutsu," means "as the snow keeps piling." Ending with "tsutsu" expresses continuation, leaving the lingering image of snow that does not stop. Like "yuki wa furitsutsu," the last line of the next poem, it ends with "tsutsu," setting the two snow poems side by side.
- Author
- Minamoto no Tsunenobu
- Source
- Shin Kokin Wakashu
- Other
-
- Unused to the shore, my heart cannot bear it so, sleeping on my way in a hut thatched with the reeds, as the white waves break against it.
- Sleeping on my way, in a hut thatched with the reeds the cold is bitter, and the boats with brushwood cut are hurrying, I can hear.
- Beneath the pine roots I cut pampas plumes to spread, and all through the night on the one sleeve that I lay, the snow keeps on falling down.
- Those I used to see send no word, and the sea wind of Tofu is still, yet so coldly shining clear is the moon of this autumn night.