ふるさとの雪は花とぞ降り積もる
ながむる我も思ひ消えつつ
ながむる我も思ひ消えつつ
- Roma-ji
-
Furusato no yuki wa hana to zo furitsumoru nagamuru ware mo omoi kietsutsu
- English Translation
-
In my old home
the snow falls and piles
like blossoms,
and I who gaze upon it
melt away in brooding thought
- Meaning
- In my old home the snow falls and piles like blossoms, and I who gaze on it am melting away in my brooding thoughts.
- Commentary
-
Book Eight Winter Poems 485
Headnote: "Topic unknown."
The poet says that the snow in the old home falls and piles like blossoms, and that he who gazes on it is melting away in brooding thoughts. Likening to blossoms the snow that piles up in an old home seldom visited, the poem overlays a heart sinking into brooding as snow melts away.
Ise's poem, 459 in this book, also pivots "furusato" on "furu," to fall, so that both sing of what falls on an old home. The conceit of snow as blossoms is shared with 475 and 476.
The poet is listed as "anonymous," and the composer's name has not come down to us.
In the first line, "furu" is a pivot word meaning both the "old" of "furusato," old home, and snow "falling."
The second line, "yuki wa hana to zo," means "the snow, like blossoms," likening snow to flowers.
The third line, "furitsumoru," closes in the attributive form in answer to "zo" in the second line, a kakarimusubi pattern; the poem pauses here.
The fourth line, "nagamuru ware mo," means "I too who gaze, lost in thought."
The last line, "omoi kietsutsu," means "melting away in brooding," with "kie," to melt, an associated word with "yuki," snow.
- Author
- Unknown Poet
- Source
- Gosen Wakashu
- Prev Poem
-
Shirakumo no oriiru yama to mietsuru wa furitsumu yuki no kienu narikeri
- Next Poem
-
Nagareyuku mizu kōrinuru fuyu sae ya nao ukikusa no ato wa todomenu