冬ごもりそれとも見えず三輪の山
杉の葉白く雪の降れれば
杉の葉白く雪の降れれば
- Roma-ji
-
Fuyugomori sore tomo miezu miwa no yama sugi no ha shiroku yuki no furereba
- English Translation
-
Shut in for winter,
it cannot be told for what it is,
the Mount of Miwa,
for the cedar leaves are white
with the snow that has fallen.
- Meaning
- Now in the winter's seclusion, Mount Miwa can no longer be recognized, for snow has fallen until even its cedar leaves are white.
- Commentary
-
Winter Poems 380
Headnote: "On seeing a screen painting of snow falling on Mount Miwa"
This poem was composed on seeing a folding screen painted with snow falling on Mount Miwa. Now in winter's seclusion, snow has whitened even the cedar leaves that mark Mount Miwa, so the mountain can no longer be told for what it is. The poet turns the old poetic image of Miwa marked by its cedars into a scene of snow.
The Ruijū text gives the headnote as "A screen showing snow falling on Mount Miwa." Since the anonymous Kokin Wakashū poem inviting a visitor to the hut at the foot of Miwa, "where cedars stand at the gate," Mount Miwa has been sung with its cedars as a landmark.
Line 1 is staying shut in through the winter, the same word as line 3 of 374.
Line 2 means "it cannot be made out for what it is," and the poem pauses here.
Line 3 names Mount Miwa in Yamato, whose cedars are sacred.
Line 4 says that even the cedar leaves that serve as the landmark are white with snow.
Line 5 is the same as that of 376 and 377, revealing last, by inversion, the reason the mountain cannot be recognized.
- Author
- Minamoto no Sanetomo
- Source
- Kinkaishu
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