かきつばた生ふる沢辺に飛ぶ蛍
数こそまされ秋や近けむ
数こそまされ秋や近けむ
- Roma-ji
-
Kakitsubata ouru sawabe ni tobu hotaru kazu koso masare aki ya chikakemu
- English Translation
-
Where the irises
grow along the marshy banks,
fireflies flitting there
ever greater in their number—
is the autumn drawing near?
- Meaning
- Over the marsh where the irises grow, the flying fireflies keep increasing in number—is autumn drawing near?
- Commentary
-
Summer Poems 169
Headnote: "On the theme 'Fireflies fly in disarray; autumn is already near'"
Seeing the fireflies multiply as they flit over the marsh where irises grow, the poet senses that autumn may be near. He renders the topic "Fireflies fly in disarray; autumn is already near" by inferring autumn's approach from the growing number of fireflies.
The topic is a line from a poem by Bai Juyi included in the "Fireflies" section of the Wakan Rōeishū. According to the source's note, the last line differs in the Jōkyō edition and was emended following the Ruijū text; this edition follows that emendation. In the source text consulted, a character at the start of line 2 could not be read and has been supplied from the Teika text's ouru sawabe ni.
Line 1, kakitsubata, is an iris that blooms purple by the water, coloring the marsh where the fireflies fly.
Line 2 means "by the marsh where they grow."
Line 3, "flying fireflies," presents the "fireflies fly in disarray" of the topic.
Line 4 concludes the binding particle koso with the evaluative masare and continues concessively, "though their numbers grow."
Line 5: ya is an interrogative binding particle closed by the conjectural chikakemu. Following "autumn" in the preceding poem, 168, it presents the "autumn is already near" of the topic.
- Author
- Minamoto no Sanetomo
- Source
- Kinkaishu
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