ひさぎ生ふる沢辺のちはら冬来れば
ひばりの床ぞあらはれにける
ひばりの床ぞあらはれにける
- Roma-ji
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Hisagi ouru sawabe no chihara fuyu kureba hibari no toko zo arawarenikeru
- English Translation
-
Where the hisagi grow,
in the cogon fields by the marsh,
now that winter comes,
the skylarks’ resting places
lie revealed for all to see.
- Meaning
- In the cogon-grass fields by the marsh where the hisagi trees grow, winter has come and withered the grasses, and the skylarks’ nests now lie bare to the eye.
- Commentary
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Book Four Winter Poems 141
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Topic unknown."
As winter withers the grasses, the skylarks’ nests, hidden in the thickets through spring and summer, are laid bare. Yoshitada captures the turning of the season through a small, homely discovery, a typical poem of the open fields from his hand.
It appears among the ten winter poems of the Yoshitada-shū, and Retired Emperor Gotoba later composed a derivative poem on skylarks’ nests exposed on the withered plain of Musashino.
First line, “hisagi ouru”: “where hisagi grow,” a deciduous tree identified as the Japanese mallotus or the catalpa.
Second line, “sawabe no chihara”: a field of cogon grass by the marsh; with the first line it sets the stage for the change that follows.
Third line, “fuyu kureba”: the realis form with “ba,” “since winter has come,” implying the withering of the grass.
Fourth line, “hibari no toko zo”: the skylarks’ nests. The particle “zo” calls for the attributive “keru” at the close.
Fifth line, “arawarenikeru”: “have become exposed,” the attributive completing the kakari-musubi. Book One, poem 17, “sakura wa hana ni arawarenikeri,” likewise shows something hidden revealed by the season, pairing spring blossoms with the withered winter field.
- Author
- Sone no Yoshitada
- Source
- Shika Wakashu
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