人知れず春をこそ待て払ふべき
人なき宿に降れる白雪
人なき宿に降れる白雪
- Roma-ji
-
Hito shirezu haru o koso mate harau beki hito naki yado ni fureru shirayuki
- English Translation
-
Unknown to anyone,
it waits for the spring to come—
on the house where none
remain to sweep it away,
the white snow that has fallen.
- Meaning
- Unknown to anyone, it waits for spring to come—the white snow fallen on a house where there is no one left to sweep it away.
- Commentary
-
Book Four Winter Poems 254
Headnote: "For a folding screen of the Reizei Retired Emperor"
The white snow fallen on a house where there is no one to sweep it away waits, unknown to anyone, for the spring in which it will melt. Giving the snow a heart, the poem overlays the loneliness of a house no one visits with a heart waiting for spring. According to the headnote, it was written for a folding screen of the Reizei Retired Emperor.
The author, written as Kanemori, is Taira no Kanemori. Of a Taira line descended from Emperor Kōkō, he was a poet of the mid-Heian period. He is known for his performance at the palace poetry contest of the fourth year of Tentoku and is counted among the Thirty-Six Immortal Poets.
First line, "hito shirezu," means "unknown to anyone."
Second line, "haru o koso mate," means "it waits for spring indeed," with the emphatic particle "koso" resolved by the perfective "mate." The poem pauses here.
Third line, "harau beki," means "who should sweep it away."
Fourth line, "hito naki yado ni," means "on a house with no one."
Final line, "fureru shirayuki," names the white snow that has fallen, ending on a noun that gives the subject by inversion. It shares its final line with 246 in this book, but where that snow was bright enough to be taken for moonlight, this is the snow of a lonely house with no one to sweep it.
- Author
- Taira no Kanemori
- Source
- Shui Wakashu
- Prev Poem
-
Shirayuki no furishiku toki wa miyoshino no yamashitakaze ni hana zo chirikeru
- Next Poem
-
Atarashiki haru sae chikaku nariyukeba furi nomi masaru toshi no yuki kana