梢にて飽かざりしかば紅葉葉の
散りしく庭を払はでぞ見る
散りしく庭を払はでぞ見る
- Roma-ji
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Kozue nite akazarishikaba momijiba no chirishiku niwa o harawade zo miru
- English Translation
-
Upon the treetops
I never had my fill of them,
so these maple leaves
scattered over all the garden
I leave unswept and gaze upon.
- Meaning
- While they still hung on the branches I could never gaze at them enough, so now that the crimson leaves lie strewn across the garden, I leave them unswept and go on looking.
- Commentary
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Book Four Winter Poems 142
Headnote: "Composed on fallen leaves at a poetry contest held at my house."
Having never tired of the maple leaves while they were on the branches, the poet leaves the fallen ones unswept and keeps on admiring them. Affection that outlasts the falling is expressed through the simple negation of an everyday act, “not sweeping.”
According to the headnote it was composed on the topic “Fallen Leaves” at a contest held at the poet’s own residence; the author is said to be Minamoto no Sukemichi. After the early-winter opening, a sequence on fallen leaves begins here.
First line, “kozue nite”: “while on the treetops,” the time when the leaves still clung to the trees.
Second line, “akazarishikaba”: negative plus the realis of past “ki” with “ba,” “because I never tired of them.”
Third line, “momijiba no”: the crimson leaves, linking the time before and after their fall.
Fourth line, “chirishiku niwa o”: the garden carpeted with fallen leaves. It shares wording with Book One, poem 37, “sakurabana chirishiku niwa o harawaneba”: in spring the strewn blossoms become snow, in winter the strewn leaves are simply cherished.
Fifth line, “harawade zo miru”: “de” negates, and “zo” is answered by the attributive “miru”: “unswept, I gaze,” deepening his attachment beyond the fall.
- Source
- Shika Wakashu
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