我が袖に霰た走る巻き隠し
消たずてあらむ妹が見むため
消たずてあらむ妹が見むため
- Roma-ji
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Waga sode ni arare tabashiru makikakushi ketazute aramu imo ga mimu tame
- English Translation
-
On my sleeve, look there,
hailstones leap and bound about;
wrapping them away,
I will keep them, not let them melt,
so my darling may see them.
- Meaning
- Hailstones go bouncing across my sleeve—I will wrap them up and keep them from melting, so my wife can see them.
- Commentary
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Book Ten Winter Miscellaneous Poems 2312
Headnote: "Winter Miscellaneous Poems"
This poem vows to wrap up the hailstones bouncing on the sleeve and keep them from melting so that the wife may see them, and it stands at the head of the Winter Miscellaneous Poems. The heart that would carry home fleeting hail with care shows love for the wife. Like 1833 in the spring poems, which wrapped snow on plum blossoms to show "you" only for it to melt, the wish to show a seasonal emblem to a loved one is entrusted here to winter hail.
Kakinomoto no Hitomaro was a court poet of the Asuka period, active under Empress Jitō and Emperor Monmu. The left note records that this poem comes from the Kakinomoto no Hitomaro Collection, and it is uncertain whether it is Hitomaro's own work or a poem by someone else that he recorded.
The first line, "on my sleeve," names the place.
In the second line, "arare tabashiru," "ta" is a prefix: hail bounces. The poem breaks here.
The third line, "wrapping and hiding them," names the act.
In the fourth line, "ketazute aramu," "mu" expresses intention: I will keep them unmelted.
The last line, "so my wife may see," gives by inversion the purpose at the end.
- Author
- Kakinomoto no Hitomaro
- Source
- Manyoshu
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