矢釣山木立も見えず降りまがふ
雪に騒ける朝楽しも
雪に騒ける朝楽しも
- Roma-ji
-
Yatsuriyama kodachi mo miezu furimagau yuki ni sawakeru ashita tanoshi mo
- English Translation
-
On Mount Yatsuri
not even the trees are seen
for the whirling snow—
bustling through the snow we come,
and how joyful is this morn!
- Meaning
- The snow whirls down so thick that the trees on Mount Yatsuri vanish, and through it we come bustling to the palace—how joyful this morning is!
- Commentary
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Book Three Miscellaneous Poems 262
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "A poem with tanka presented by Kakinomoto no Hitomaro to Prince Niitabe" — "One envoy"
This is the envoy to a long poem offered to Prince Niitabe. On a morning when snow falls so thick that the trees of Mount Yatsuri cannot be seen, it sings the joy of people bustling to the prince's palace, celebrating its prosperity. The reading of sawakeru in the fourth line is unsettled because of the characters used in the original, and it has been taken to mean either people thronging merrily or riders galloping to the palace. Prince Niitabe was a son of Emperor Tenmu, and Mount Yatsuri is a hill near Yatsuri in present-day Asuka, Nara.
The poet, Kakinomoto no Hitomaro, was a court poet active from the reign of Jitō to that of Monmu. Master of both long and short poems, he was later revered as the "Saint of Poetry." His rank was low, and much of his life remains obscure.
First line "On Mount Yatsuri": a hill near Yatsuri in Asuka, thought to be close to the prince's palace.
Second line "not even the trees are seen" conveys how heavily the snow falls.
Third line "for the whirling snow": magau means to mingle until indistinguishable, describing snow falling in confusion.
Fourth line "bustling through the snow": sawake with the attributive ru of the continuative ri—people thronging noisily in the snow.
Fifth line "how joyful is this morn": mo is exclamatory, declaring the bright festivity of the snowy morning a joy and ending in a blessing on the palace's prosperity.
- Author
- Kakinomoto no Hitomaro
- Source
- Manyoshu
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Itsu no ma mo kamusabikeru ka Kaguyama no hokosugi no moto ni koke musu made ni
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Uma na itaku uchite na yuki so ke narabete mite mo waga yuku Shiga ni aranaku ni