今朝見れば山も霞みて久方の
天の原より春は来にけり
天の原より春は来にけり
- Roma-ji
-
Kesa mireba yama mo kasumite hisakata no ama no hara yori haru wa kinikeri
- English Translation
-
This morning I look—
even the hills are veiled in haze;
from the far-reaching
plains of heaven high above
spring has come down to us now.
- Meaning
- Looking out this morning, I see even the mountains veiled in haze—spring, I realize, has come down from the wide plains of heaven.
- Commentary
-
Spring Poems 1
Headnote: "Composed on the first day of the first month"
On the morning of New Year's Day, the poet sees haze rising over the hills and senses that spring has arrived from the heavens. From the concrete sight of the hazy mountains his gaze widens to the whole sky, and he expresses with generous ease the fresh joy of greeting the new year. This poem opens the spring section of Minamoto no Sanetomo's Kinkai Wakashū, and Kamo no Mabuchi marked it with a circle of approval.
Recognizing spring's arrival through haze has precedents in the Man'yōshū, such as the poem in which haze trailing over Heavenly Mount Kagu at dusk signals that spring has come, and this poem inherits that broad Man'yō cadence.
Line 1, "This morning I look," fixes the time as New Year's morning and opens frankly with what the poet sees. It echoes the final poem of the section, 132, in which the poet is startled on "seeing" a painted spring scene in summer; at both ends of the section, spring is known by looking.
Line 2, "even the hills are veiled in haze": the particle mo ("even") suggests that the haze has reached the hills too, showing how spring's presence extends to the scene at hand.
Line 3, hisakata no, is a pillow word that modifies "heaven."
Line 4, "plains of heaven": ama no hara means the vast sky, and yori marks the point of origin, as though spring descends from above.
Line 5, "spring has come": the auxiliary keri conveys sudden realization, expressing the poet's wonder at clearly recognizing spring's arrival. The same closing line appears in poem 7, serving as a set ending for poems on the beginning of spring.
- Author
- Minamoto no Sanetomo
- Source
- Kinkaishu
- Next Poem
-
Kokonoe no kumoi ni haru zo tachinurashi ōuchiyama ni kasumi tanabiku