眺むれば霞める空の浮雲と
ひとつになりぬ帰る雁がね
ひとつになりぬ帰る雁がね
- Roma-ji
-
Nagamureba kasumeru sora no ukigumo to hitotsu ni narinu kaeru karigane
- English Translation
-
As I gaze and muse,
with the drifting clouds that float
in the hazy sky
they have merged and become one,
the wild geese flying home
- Meaning
- As I gaze lost in thought, the homeward-flying geese merge with the clouds drifting in the hazy sky and become one with them.
- Commentary
-
Book One Spring Poems I 37
Headnote: "Composed on the spirit of returning geese"
Composed on the topic "returning geese," this poem says that as the poet watches the geese fly north, lost in thought, their line blends into the clouds floating in the hazy sky until it becomes one with them and vanishes. The mind that keeps gazing after the receding geese melts into the dim expanse of the misty sky.
The author, "Middle Captain of the Left Yoshitsune," is Kujō Yoshitsune, son of Regent Kujō Kanezane, who was a young Middle Captain of the Left Inner Palace Guards when the Senzai Wakashū was compiled. He later became Regent and Chancellor and wrote the Japanese preface to the Shin Kokin Wakashū.
First line, "nagamureba": "nagamu" means to gaze vacantly while lost in thought, and with "ba" it means "as I gaze."
Second line, "kasumeru sora no": "ru" is the attributive of the continuative "ri," "of the hazy sky."
Third line, "ukigumo to": "with the floating clouds."
Fourth line, "hitotsu ni narinu": "nu" marks completion, and the poem pauses here. The next poem, 38, says "hitotsu ni miyuru," depicting sky and sea seen as one, in counterpoint to the clouds and geese here.
Fifth line, "kaeru karigane": ending on a noun, it places the subject of the fourth line afterward in inverted order. The next poem ends with the same line.
- Author
- Kujō Yoshitsune
- Source
- Senzai Wakashu
- Prev Poem
-
Haru kureba tanomu no kari mo ima wa tote kaeru kumoji ni omoitatsu nari
- Next Poem
-
Amatsu sora hitotsu ni miyuru Koshi no umi no nami o wakete mo kaeru karigane