あしひきの山道も知らず白橿の
枝もとををに雪の降れれば
枝もとををに雪の降れれば
- Roma-ji
-
Ashihiki no yamaji mo shirazu shirakashi no eda mo tōo ni yuki no furereba
- English Translation
-
On the rugged hills
I don't know the mountain path,
since the white oak's boughs
bending low beneath its weight
snow has fallen, piling deep.
- Meaning
- I cannot find the mountain path, for snow has fallen so heavily that the branches of the white oaks bend beneath it.
- Commentary
-
Book Ten Winter Miscellaneous Poems 2315
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Winter Miscellaneous Poems"
This poem says the mountain path can no longer be found because snow has fallen so heavily that the white oak branches bend. It shows the depth of a snow-buried mountain and the helplessness of losing one's way. The kundoku carries a variant for the fourth line, "eda mo tawatawa." The left note, after stating that the poem comes from the Hitomaro Collection, records that one text attributes this poem to the monk Mikata, so there is a variant tradition about its author.
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, "ashihiki no," is a pillow word attached to "mountain."
The second line, "not knowing even the mountain path," breaks the poem after the second line.
The third line, "of the white oak," names an evergreen oak.
In the fourth line, "eda mo tōo ni," "tōo" describes branches bending, the same word as in 2170 of the autumn poems.
In the last line, "yuki no furereba," "re" is the perfective of "ri" and "ba" an established condition: since snow lies fallen.
- Author
- Kakinomoto no Hitomaro
- Source
- Manyoshu
- Prev Poem
-
Makimuku no hibara mo imada kumoineba komatsu ga ure yu awayuki nagaru
- Next Poem
-
Narayama no mine nao kirau ube shi koso magaki ga shita no yuki wa kezukere