春の雨のあまねき御代を頼むかな
霜に枯れゆく草葉もらすな
霜に枯れゆく草葉もらすな
- Roma-ji
-
Haru no ame no amaneki miyo o tanomu kana shimo ni kareyuku kusaba morasu na
- English Translation
-
Like the rain of spring
reaching everything, this reign
is my hope and trust:
the grasses withering in frost—
do not let them be left out.
- Meaning
- I place my trust in this reign, whose grace reaches everywhere like the spring rain—do not leave out the grasses withering in the frost.
- Commentary
-
Book Sixteen Miscellaneous Poems I 1478
Headnote: "For the Poetry Contest in Fifteen Hundred Rounds."
This is the sixth poem of the sequence on the things of late spring. The poet trusts in a reign whose grace reaches everything like the spring rain, and asks that one like grass withering in frost not be left out. According to the headnote, it was presented at the Poetry Contest in Fifteen Hundred Rounds.
The author, "Ariie Ason," was the son of Fujiwara no Shigeie. A poet of the Rokujō Fujiwara line, he was one of the compilers of the Shin Kokinshū.
The Poetry Contest in Fifteen Hundred Rounds was the largest poetry contest in history, formed by pairing the hundred-poem sequences that Retired Emperor Go-Toba had thirty poets compose in Kennin 1 (1201).
The first line, "haru no ame no," is hypermetric and presents the spring rain that moistens all things. Spring rain is sung as a figure for the sovereign's grace.
In the second line, "amaneki miyo o," "amaneki" means "reaching every corner." The breadth of the reign's grace is overlaid on the spring rain falling equally on all.
The third line, "tanomu kana," declares with the exclamatory "kana," "how I place my trust," and the poem breaks after the third line.
The fourth line, "shimo ni kareyuku," refers to withering under frost. It likens to grass a self growing old without favor.
The last line, "kusaba morasu na," uses the prohibitive "na," meaning "do not leave out." "Morasu," to let slip or leak, is an associated word of rain, and the line is a personal plea not to be left out of the rain of grace.
- Author
- Fujiwara no Ariie
- Source
- Shin Kokin Wakashu
- Prev Poem
-
Ori ni aeba kore mo sasuga ni aware nari oda no kawazu no yūgure no koe
- Next Poem
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Suberagi no kodakaki kage ni kakurete mo nao harusame ni nuren to zo omou