鴛鴦の住む君がこの山斎今日見れば
馬酔木の花も咲きにけるかも
馬酔木の花も咲きにけるかも
- Roma-ji
-
Oshi no sumu kimi ga kono shima kyō mireba ashibi no hana mo sakinikeru kamo
- English Translation
-
Where the mandarin ducks
dwell in this garden of yours,
looking on today
I see the ashibi flowers
have come into bloom as well
- Meaning
- Looking today at your garden island where the mandarin ducks dwell, I see that the ashibi flowers too have come into bloom.
- Commentary
-
Book Twenty Miscellaneous Poems 4511
Headnote: "Three poems composed on seeing the garden."
Looking today at your garden where the mandarin ducks dwell, I see the ashibi flowers have bloomed too: the poem praises the spring scene of the host's garden. According to the headnote, it is the first of three poems composed on seeing the garden, thought to continue the banquet at Nakatomi no Kiyomaro's residence after the fifteen poems. The left note attributes it to Prince Mikata, Chief Inspector of the Treasuries. Pairing mandarin ducks and ashibi by the pond, it praises the garden's beauty.
The author, Prince Mikata, a member of the imperial family, was at this time Chief Inspector of the Treasuries. The left note in the original writes his name with different characters.
The first line, "oshi no sumu," "where the mandarin ducks dwell," is hypermetric, taking up the ducks of Ōhara no Imaki's earlier poem.
The second line, "kimi ga kono shima," uses shima for a garden with pond and artificial hill, here the host Kiyomaro's garden. It too is hypermetric.
The third line, "kyō mireba," means "when I look today."
The fourth line, "ashibi no hana mo," names the ashibi, an evergreen shrub bearing clusters of white bell flowers in spring; the next two poems also sing of it.
The closing line, "sakinikeru kamo," "they have bloomed," ends in the exclamatory kamo.
- Author
- Prince Mikata
- Source
- Manyoshu
- Prev Poem
-
Ōkimi no tsugite mesurashi Takamato no nobe miru goto ni ne nomi shi nakayu
- Next Poem
-
Ikemizu ni kage sae miete sakiniou ashibi no hana o sode ni kokirena