梅は早咲にけりとておれはちる
花とそ雪のふるは見えける
花とそ雪のふるは見えける
- Roma-ji
-
Ume wa haya sakinikeri tote oreba chiru hana to zo yuki no furu wa miekeru
- English Translation
-
"Already the plum
has bloomed," I thought, and broke the bough,
and it scattered down;
the falling snow, it truly seemed,
was nothing but its flowers
- Meaning
- Thinking the plum had already bloomed, I broke off the branch, and it scattered; truly, the falling snow had looked just like flowers.
- Commentary
-
45 Plum Blossoms of Snow
After their exchange about the seat of the Law, the two passed their days exchanging poems. On a day of heavy snow, the prince sent a poem attached to a branch laden with snow.
The woman is Izumi Shikibu, daughter of Ōe no Masamune and, as the wife of Tachibana no Michisada, Governor of Izumi, mother of Koshikibu no Naishi. The Prince of the Dazaifu is Prince Atsumichi, fourth son of Emperor Reizei, so called because he served as Governor-General of the Dazaifu.
When the prince's "Yuki fureba kigi no konoha mo haru narade oshinabe ume no hana zo sakeru" arrived tied to a snow-laden branch, Izumi Shikibu, surprised by the unexpected conceit, sent back this poem.
Early the next morning a poem would come from the prince about the pain of sleeping alone on a winter night.
The opening lines mean "thinking the plum had already bloomed," answering his "the plum blossoms have bloomed," with auxiliaries of completion and exclamation. The third line means "when I broke it, it scattered," describing the snow fluttering down as she takes the snowy branch in hand.
The lower verses mean "the falling snow looked like flowers indeed," sealed by an emphatic construction ending in an exclamatory auxiliary. Accepting his fanciful comparison as it is, she answers as though from experience: she broke off the branch he sent and it scattered, so what looked like flowers was snow after all, and so she deepens his conceit still further.
- Author
- Izumi Shikibu
- Source
- Izumi Shikibu Nikki
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Yuki fureba kigi no konoha mo haru narade oshinabe ume no hana zo sakeru
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Fuyu no yo wa koishiki koto ni me mo awade koromo katashiki ake zo shinikeru