年を経て吉野の山に見なれたる
目に珍しき今朝の初雪
目に珍しき今朝の初雪
- Roma-ji
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Toshi o hete yoshino no yama ni minaretaru me ni mezurashiki kesa no hatsuyuki
- English Translation
-
For years on end
upon Yoshino’s mountains
have these eyes gazed,
and still to them how rare it is,
this first snowfall of the morning.
- Meaning
- Even to eyes grown used, over many years, to the snows of the Yoshino mountains, this morning’s first snowfall is a rare and wondrous sight.
- Commentary
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Book Four Winter Poems 154
Headnote: "Composed on seeing the first snow at the residence of the Lay Priest and Former Chancellor, when I was Governor of Yamato."
According to the headnote, the poet composed it on seeing the first snow at the mansion of a former chancellor who had taken vows, while serving as Governor of Yamato. Even one long accustomed to snowy Yoshino in his province finds this morning’s first snow at the mansion especially fresh, and the poem carries a greeting to his host.
The Shōhō printed edition reads the final line as “kesa no shirayuki,” “this morning’s white snow.”
First line, “toshi o hete”: “through the years,” his time as Governor of Yamato.
Second line, “yoshino no yama ni”: Yoshino in Yamato, long known as a snowy mountain. In Book One, poem 22, it appears as a place of blossoms; here it is a mountain of snow.
Third line, “minaretaru”: the stative “taru,” “accustomed to seeing,” modifying “me,” “eyes,” in the next line.
Fourth line, “me ni mezurashiki”: “rare even to such eyes,” heightening the freshness by paradox.
Fifth line, “kesa no hatsuyuki”: ending on a noun. Snow itself appears here for the first time in the book, and, following the snow clouds of the preceding poem, the snow sequence begins.
- Source
- Shika Wakashu
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Yama fukami yaku sumigama no keburi koso yagate yukige no kumo to narikere
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Higurashi ni yamaji no kinō shigureshi wa fuji no takane no yuki ni zo arikeru