松の葉の白きを見れば春日山
木の芽もはるの雪ぞ降りける
木の芽もはるの雪ぞ降りける
- Roma-ji
-
Matsu no ha no shiroki o mireba kasugayama ko no me mo haru no yuki zo furikeru
- English Translation
-
When I see the pines
with their needles turned to white,
on Kasuga hill,
though buds swell in this springtime,
the snow, I know, has fallen.
- Meaning
- Seeing the pine needles turned white, I realize that snow has fallen on Mount Kasuga, even in spring when the tree buds are swelling.
- Commentary
-
Spring Poems 19
Headnote: "On a folding-screen painting of snow falling on Mount Kasuga"
Responding to a screen painting of snow on Mount Kasuga, the poet deduces from the whitened pine needles that snow has fallen in spring, the season when buds swell. He captures the surprise of spring snow in the sight of evergreen pines turned white. Kamo no Mabuchi felt that the phrase "buds swell in spring" is unlike the poet's spirit and thought it an early work.
In the Ruijū text the headnote ends "…composed on this." One character in the fourth line of the base text is hard to read, so the common reading ko no me mo haru no has been adopted.
Line 1, "the pines," draws attention to the change in color of the evergreen.
Line 2, "with their needles turned to white," leads to the poet's inference.
Line 3: Mount Kasuga is in Yamato; following the preceding poem, 18, on Kasuga plain, another screen poem of the same district follows.
Line 4: haru is a pivot word joining haru, "to swell" (of buds), with haru, "spring."
Line 5: zo with the attributive form of keri forms a kakarimusubi, expressing surprise at realizing snow has fallen.
- Author
- Minamoto no Sanetomo
- Source
- Kinkaishu
- Prev Poem
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Kasugano no tobuhi no nomori kyō tote ya mukashi katami ni wakana tsumuramu
- Next Poem
-
Haru kite wa hana to ka miemu onozukara kuchiki no soma ni fureru shirayuki