降る雪をいかにあはれと眺むらむ
心は思ふとも足立たずして
心は思ふとも足立たずして
- Roma-ji
-
Furu yuki o ika ni aware to nagamuramu kokoro wa mou tomo ashi tatazu shite
- English Translation
-
The falling snow—
with what deep feeling, I wonder,
you must gaze on it,
though your heart may long to go,
unable to stand on your feet.
- Meaning
- With what deep feeling you must be gazing at the falling snow—though your heart may long to go out, your feet will not let you stand.
- Commentary
-
Winter Poems 385
Headnote: "Composed and sent on a day of snowfall to someone who had shut himself away with an ailment of the leg"
This poem was composed and sent on a snowy day to someone who had shut himself away with an ailment of the leg. With what deep feeling must you be gazing at the falling snow, the poet writes, though your heart longs to go out to see it and your feet will not bear you; he thinks tenderly of the other's plight.
The Ruijū text gives the headnote with slightly different wording, ending "a poem composed and sent," and places the poem in the miscellaneous section. Kamo no Mabuchi marked it with a circle. The source glosses the character for omou in line 4 with the reading mo and marks it "as in the original," so it is read here as mou.
Line 1 shows the snow the other person gazes at, reflecting that the poem was sent on a day of snowfall.
Line 2 imagines the other's heart, "with what deep feeling."
Line 3: the present conjectural ramu imagines the other gazing now, and the poem pauses here.
Line 4 means "though your heart may wish it," read as mou following the source's gloss.
Line 5 means "with your feet unable to stand," taking up the ailment of the leg in the headnote and showing concern for the other.
- Author
- Minamoto no Sanetomo
- Source
- Kinkaishu
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