露の命消えなましかばかくばかり
降る白雪をながめましやは
降る白雪をながめましやは
- Roma-ji
-
Tsuyu no inochi kienamashikaba kaku bakari furu shirayuki o nagamemashi ya wa
- English Translation
-
Had this dewdrop life
of mine vanished away, could I
ever have gazed on
the white snow that falls like this,
falling in such abundance?
- Meaning
- Had my dewdrop life vanished, could I have gazed upon the white snow falling so thickly as this?
- Commentary
-
Book Sixteen Miscellaneous Poems I 1581
Headnote: "On a snowy morning, when his illness had grown grave."
This is the fifth poem of the sequence on winter. Had his dewdrop life vanished, the retired emperor asks, could he have gazed on the white snow falling so thickly? According to the headnote, it was composed by Retired Emperor Go-Shirakawa on a snowy morning when his illness had grown grave.
The author, "the Poem of Retired Emperor Go-Shirakawa," is Emperor Go-Shirakawa. A son of Emperor Toba, after abdicating he ruled for many years as retired emperor, and, fond of imayō songs, he compiled the Ryōjin Hishō.
The first line, "tsuyu no inochi," is hypermetric and refers to a life fleeting as dew.
The second line, "kienamashikaba," uses the counterfactual "mashikaba," meaning "had it vanished." "Kie," to vanish, is an associated word of dew.
The third line, "kaku bakari," means "to this degree."
The fourth line, "furu shirayuki o," refers to the falling white snow. It takes up the snow of the preceding poem.
The last line, "nagamemashi ya wa," adds the rhetorical "ya wa" to the counterfactual "mashi," meaning "could I have gazed?—surely not." Like Shunzei's "mata mo kono yo no tsuki o min to wa" at 1531 in this book, it entrusts to the snow the deep feeling of seeing the things of the world again after being granted life.
- Author
- Retired Emperor Go-Shirakawa
- Source
- Shin Kokin Wakashu
- Prev Poem
-
Ato mo naku yuki furusato wa arenikeri izure mukashi no kakine naruran
- Next Poem
-
Somayama ya kozue ni omoru yukiore ni taenu nageki no mi o kudakuran