Misogi suru kaya no nokiba ni hiku shide no matsuwaretsukite natsu o todomemu

禊するかやの軒端に引く四手の
まつはれつきて夏をとどめむ

Roma-ji: Misogi suru kaya no nokiba ni hiku shide no matsuwaretsukite natsu o todomemu
English Translation: At the purifying
where the eaves of thatch are hung
with the paper streamers,
clinging, tangling as they do,
I would hold the summer back.
Meaning: Like the paper streamers hung from the thatched eaves where the purification is held, I would cling and tangle round summer to keep it from leaving.
Commentary: Summer Poems 177

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Composed at the end of summer"
Entrusting his wish to the paper streamers stretched along the thatched eaves at the place of purification, the poet longs to hold back the departing summer. Like streamers clinging in the wind, his heart would cling to the summer slipping away.
The Ruijū text places this poem among "poems found in another manuscript and in printed editions." In the source text consulted, a character in line 2 could not be read, and no has been supplied from the syllable count, reading it as kaya no nokiba ni.

Line 1 shares its opening with the preceding poem, 176, showing the place of the sixth-month purification.
Line 2 means "on the eaves thatched with kaya grass."
Line 3 describes shide streamers hung along a sacred rope; up to here the lines form a preface leading to "clinging and tangling."
Line 4, matsuwaretsukite, means clinging and winding round, overlaying the streamers caught by the wind with a heart clinging to summer.
Line 5: mu expresses intention, "I would hold summer back." The summer day that ended in the preceding poem is one the poet still tries to detain here.
Author: Minamoto no Sanetomo
Source: Kinkaishu
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