Kusamakura yūbe no sora o hito towaba nakite mo tsuge yo hatsukari no koe

English Translation

Pillowed on the grass
under the evening sky—
should anyone ask,
tell them though you cry to do it,
voice of the first wild geese.

Meaning

If anyone asks how I fare, pillowed on the grass beneath the evening sky, tell them, even if you must cry out, voice of the first wild geese of autumn, how I weep.

Commentary

Book Ten Travel Poems 960

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "On the topic 'Evening on a journey' at a poetry contest of the Poetry Bureau."
This is the eleventh of a sequence of poems on the road at nightfall and lodging for the night. If anyone asks how he fares beneath the evening sky on the road, the speaker bids the first wild geese to tell them with their cries, entrusting his feelings to the geese flying toward the capital. According to the headnote, it was composed on the topic "Evening on a journey" at a poetry contest of the Poetry Bureau.
The author, Fujiwara no Hideyoshi, was a poet of the early Kamakura period. He served Retired Emperor Go-Toba as a guard of the Northern Quarter.
The scene is an autumn evening on a journey, on the road beneath a sky where the first wild geese pass.
The direct occasion is composing on the topic "Evening on a journey" at a poetry contest held at the Poetry Bureau.

The first line, "kusamakura," is a pillow word for journey, here standing for one sleeping on the road.
The second line, "yūbe no sora o," means "of me beneath the evening sky." Taking up the evening gaze at "kumo no hatate" in the preceding poem, the evening sky is sung of again.
The third line, "hito towaba," means "if anyone asks." The irrealis form with "ba" makes a supposition. Taking up the word "tou" sung of in 908, 912, and 930, it imagines someone in the capital asking.
In the fourth line, "nakite mo tsuge yo," "naki" carries both the geese "crying" and the traveler "weeping." In the imperative, it makes a request of the geese.
The last line, "hatsukari no koe," means "voice of the first wild geese," naming the one addressed with a noun ending. Following "koromo karikane nami ni naku nari" in 945, geese are sung of again; there the geese's cry was laid over the traveler's grief, while here the geese become messengers carrying the traveler's feelings to the capital. As 934 asks the plovers to inquire, this poem entrusts feelings to a bird.

Author

Fujiwara no Hideyoshi

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other