焼き捨てし古野の小野の真葛原
玉巻くばかりなりにけるかな
玉巻くばかりなりにけるかな
- Roma-ji
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Yakisuteshi furuno no ono no makuzuhara tama maku bakari narinikeru kana
- English Translation
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In the arrowroot field
on the old meadow where we burned
and cast the grass away,
the new leaves have already grown
enough to curl like jewels
- Meaning
- The arrowroot field on the old meadow we burned off in spring has already grown so much that its new leaves are curling like jewels.
- Commentary
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Book Three Summer Poems 145
Headnote: "Composed on wild grasses when several of us went to a mountain village and composed poems"
Composed on "wild grasses" when the poet went with others to a mountain village and they composed poems. The arrowroot on the meadow that was burned off in spring has, by early summer, grown so much that its new leaves curl like jewels. The poem notes both the vitality of plants springing up again from scorched fields and the swiftness of the season's change.
The author, "Fujiwara no Sadamichi," is a figure whose life is not well known.
First line, "yakisuteshi": "shi" is the attributive past auxiliary, "that we burned and cast away" in the spring field-burning.
Second line, "furuno no ono no": "furuno" is an old field left from the previous year, and "ono" a meadow.
Third line, "makuzuhara": "ma" is an honorific prefix, a meadow thick with arrowroot.
Fourth line, "tama maku bakari": "so that the new leaves curl round like jewels."
Fifth line, "narinikeru kana": "ni" is the continuative of the perfective "nu," "keru" the attributive of "keri," and "kana" exclamatory. After the deutzia sequence, it depicts the growth of grasses in early summer.
- Author
- Fujiwara no Sadamichi
- Source
- Senzai Wakashu
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Unohana no kakine to nomi ya omowamashi shizu no fuseya ni keburi tatazu wa
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Aoigusa teru hi wa kami no kokoro ka wa kage sasu kata ni mazu nabikuran