青柳の糸よりつたふ白露を
玉と見るまで春雨ぞ降る
玉と見るまで春雨ぞ降る
- Roma-ji
-
Aoyagi no ito yori tsutau shiratsuyu o tama to miru made harusame zo furu
- English Translation
-
Down the slender threads
of the green willow branches,
the bright white dewdrops
glisten until they seem pearls—
so falls the gentle spring rain.
- Meaning
- The spring rain falls until the white dewdrops trickling down the threads of the green willow look like pearls.
- Commentary
-
Spring Poems 41
Headnote: "Willows in the rain"
The poet sings of spring rain falling and the drops trickling down the willow branches looking like pearls. Noticing not the rain itself but the beauty of dew running down the willow threads, he paints a soft scene of spring rain. Kamo no Mabuchi judged it a work of the middle period.
This poem was included in the Shokushūi Wakashū. The Ruijū text places it in the section of poems from another manuscript and the printed edition.
Line 1, "the green willow," continues the willows of 40.
Line 2: yori marks a route, meaning trickling along the willow threads.
Line 3 treats the raindrops as white dew.
Line 4, "until they seem pearls," carries the dewdrop-pearl image of the preceding poem, 40, into a rain scene.
Line 5: zo with the attributive forms a kakarimusubi, the same closing as 43.
- Author
- Minamoto no Sanetomo
- Source
- Kinkaishu
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Aoyagi no ito mote nukeru shiratsuyu no tama kokichirasu haru no yamakaze
- Next Poem
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Mizu tamaru ike no tsutsumi no sashiyanagi kono harusame ni moeidenikeri