山里は冬こそことにわびしけれ
雪踏み分けて訪ふ人もなし
雪踏み分けて訪ふ人もなし
- Roma-ji
-
Yamazato wa fuyu koso koto ni wabishikere yuki fumiwakete tou hito mo nashi
- English Translation
-
In a mountain village
winter, above all, is the time
of loneliness;
treading through the snow to call,
there is no one at all.
- Meaning
- In a mountain village, winter above all is the loneliest time; no one comes treading through the snow to visit.
- Commentary
-
Winter Poems 373
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Snow"
In a mountain village, winter above all is dreary, and no one comes treading through the snow to call. In plain words the poet sings the loneliness of a mountain village shut in by snow, where visitors no longer come.
The poem shares its first line with the Kokin Wakashū poem by Minamoto no Muneyuki on the mountain village whose loneliness deepens in winter, and sings the same theme of the winter village's loneliness through visits cut off by snow.
Line 1 means "in a mountain village."
Line 2: koso is a binding particle concluded in line 3; koto ni means "above all."
Line 3 concludes koso with the evaluative form, and the poem pauses here.
Line 4 means "treading a path through the piled snow."
Line 5 means "there is no one who comes to call." The next poem ends with the same line, so two poems sing the loneliness of a dwelling shut in by snow.
- Author
- Minamoto no Sanetomo
- Source
- Kinkaishu
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Harae tada yukiwakegoromo nuki o usumi tsumoreba samushi yamaarashi no kaze
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Waga io wa yoshino no oku no fuyugomori yuki furitsumite tou hito mo nashi