春来ればなほ色まさる山城の
ときはの森の青柳の糸
ときはの森の青柳の糸
- Roma-ji
-
Haru kureba nao iro masaru yamashiro no tokiwa no mori no aoyagi no ito
- English Translation
-
When springtime arrives
their color deepens all the more—
in Yamashiro,
in the forest of Tokiwa,
the threads of the green willow.
- Meaning
- When spring comes their color grows ever deeper—the threadlike green willows in the forest of Tokiwa in Yamashiro.
- Commentary
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Spring Poems 39
Headnote: "Willows"
The poet sings of the green willows in the forest of Tokiwa in Yamashiro, whose green deepens all the more when spring comes. In a forest whose name means "unchanging color," the willows grow richer each spring—a witty conceit. Kamo no Mabuchi noted that in ancient usage nao always meant "until" and that using it to mean "all the more" follows later fashion, and that the conceit of the Tokiwa forest also reflects a later sensibility.
In the Ruijū text the headnote reads "Composed on willows."
Line 1, "When springtime arrives," is a habitual condition, the same opening as 15.
Line 2: nao means "all the more," the usage Mabuchi considered later.
Line 3: Yamashiro is the province in southern Kyoto where the forest lies.
Line 4: tokiwa is a pivot word joining the place name Tokiwa in Yamashiro with tokiwa, "evergreen, unchanging." The contrast—color deepening in a forest named for unchanging color—is the conceit.
Line 5 ends on a noun, likening the slender willow branches to threads. Poems on the threads of green willows continue from the next poem, 40, through 43.
- Author
- Minamoto no Sanetomo
- Source
- Kinkaishu
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