天飛ぶや雁の翼の覆ひ羽の
いづく漏りてか霜の降りけむ
いづく漏りてか霜の降りけむ
- Roma-ji
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Amatobu ya kari no tsubasa no ōiba no izuku morite ka shimo no furikemu
- English Translation
-
Flying through the sky,
the wild geese spread out their wings,
covering feathers—
from which gap did it leak through,
that the frost has come to fall?
- Meaning
- The wild geese flying through the sky cover it with their wings—so from what gap did the frost leak through to fall?
- Commentary
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Book Ten Autumn Miscellaneous Poems 2238
Headnote: "On Frost"
This poem wonders from what gap in the covering wings of the geese flying across the sky the frost leaked through to fall, and its headnote is "On Frost"; it closes the Autumn Miscellaneous Poems. The whimsical idea that the geese's wings keep off the frost shows rich wit and imagination. Joining the geese sung in the geese group with the frost that announces autumn's end, it marks the turning from autumn to winter.
The first line, "amatobu ya," is a pillow word attached to "geese" and is a short line.
The second line, "of the geese's wings," names the wings.
The third line, "the covering feathers," treats the geese's wings as covering the sky.
In the fourth line, "izuku morite ka," "ka" is an interrogative particle in kakari-musubi with "kemu" in the last line: leaking from where?
In the last line, "shimo no furikemu," "kemu" is past conjecture, closing by pondering the mystery of the frost.
- Source
- Manyoshu
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