玉かけし花の姿も衰へて
霜をいただく女郎花かな
霜をいただく女郎花かな
- Roma-ji
-
Tama kakeshi hana no sugata mo otoroete shimo o itadaku ominaeshi kana
- English Translation
-
Once hung with jewels,
the form of the flower too
has faded and declined,
bearing frost upon its head,
the maiden flower now.
- Meaning
- Its flowers, once hung with jewels of dew, have faded, and now the maiden flower wears the frost upon its head.
- Commentary
-
Winter Poems 511
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "When composing winter poems"
This is the second of four winter poems. The maiden flower, which in autumn wore jewels of dew, has lost its beauty and now bears frost upon its head. Because the name ominaeshi contains the word for woman, the poem personifies the flower's decline as a young woman grown old with white hair on her head.
Following the preceding poem on frost on the reeds of Naniwa Bay, this one turns to frost on the maiden flower, moving the frost-covered plant from the waterside to the flowers of the fields.
First line, “tama kakeshi”: tama is the jewel of dew, and shi is the attributive of the past auxiliary ki, the flower that once wore dewdrops in autumn.
Second line, “hana no sugata mo”: the form of the flower too, mo implying its autumn beauty as well.
Third line, “otoroete”: declining, the flower past its prime.
Fourth line, “shimo o itadaku”: itadaku is to bear on the head, the frost likened to white hair.
Fifth line, “ominaeshi kana”: ominaeshi is one of the seven flowers of autumn, personified because its name contains the word for woman; kana is exclamatory.
- Author
- Saigyō
- Source
- Sankashu
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Naniwae no migiwa no ashi ni shimo saete urakaze samuki asaborake kana
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Yamazakura hatsuyuki fureba sakinikeri Yoshino wa sato ni fuyugomoredomo