妹が門入り泉川の常滑に
み雪残れりいまだ冬かも
み雪残れりいまだ冬かも
- Roma-ji
-
Imo ga kado iri izumigawa no tokoname ni miyuki nokoreri imada fuyu kamo
- English Translation
-
At my darling's gate
I enter, and the Izumi River
on its slippery rocks
holds the snow that lingers still—
could it yet be winter here?
- Meaning
- On the smooth, slippery rocks of the Izumi riverbed the snow still lingers. Could it still be winter?
- Commentary
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Book Nine Miscellaneous Poems 1695
Headnote: "A poem composed at the Izumi River"
Seeing snow still lying on the rocks of the Izumi riverbed, the traveler wonders whether it is still winter. The whiteness of lingering snow on a road that should already be in spring leaves a strong impression.
The Izumi River is the Kizu River in southern Kyoto. Poems 1685 and 1686 of this book were also composed on its banks.
The author, Kakinomoto no Hitomaro, was a court poet active in the reigns of Jitō and Monmu. This poem is taken from the Hitomaro Collection, which is thought to contain both Hitomaro's own poems and poems by others that he gathered.
The first line, "at my darling's gate," together with "enter" in the second line forms a preface: entering and going out, iri izu, leads to the name Izumi.
The second line, "I enter, and the Izumi River," links iri, "enter," and izu, "go out," to the place name as a play on words, and runs to eight syllables.
The third line, "on its slippery rocks," refers to tokoname, riverbed rocks always slick with moss.
The fourth line, "holds the snow that lingers still," uses the honorific mi and the continuative ri, and the poem pauses here.
The final line, "could it yet be winter here?" uses kamo as a question. Like "still in tight-closed bud" in 1684, the word imada, "still," expresses the lateness of the season.
- Author
- Kakinomoto no Hitomaro
- Source
- Manyoshu
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