春待ちて霞の袖に重ねよと
しもの衣のおきてこそゆけ
しもの衣のおきてこそゆけ
- Roma-ji
-
Haru machite kasumi no sode ni kasaneyo to shimo no koromo no okite koso yuke
- English Translation
-
Wait for the spring
and wear it beneath the sleeves
of your robe of haze—
this frosted undergarment
I leave as I rise to go.
- Meaning
- "Wait for spring, and wear it beneath the misty sleeves of your spring robe"—so I leave behind this frost-touched undergarment as I rise at dawn and go.
- Commentary
-
Winter Poems 387
Headnote: "In the twelfth month of Kenpō 5, having gone to stay at a monk's lodging at Yōfuku-ji to avoid an unlucky direction, I left behind a kosode robe as I returned in the morning"
In the twelfth month of Kenpō 5 (1217), the poet stayed at a monk's lodging at Yōfuku-ji in Kamakura to avoid an unlucky direction, and on returning the next morning he left behind a kosode robe with this poem. "Wait for spring and wear it beneath the sleeves of your robe of haze," he says, leaving the undergarment on a frosty morning as he rises and goes. He entrusts his thanks to the monk who lodged him to the language of the seasons.
The Ruijū text places this poem among the "poems found in other manuscripts and printed editions." Yōfuku-ji was a temple built in Kamakura by Minamoto no Yoritomo.
Line 1 means "waiting for spring," marking this as a poem of the year's end.
Line 2 means "on the sleeves of haze," the spring robe in which haze is likened to cloth.
Line 3 means "wear it layered," and the lines up to here are the words addressed with the robe left behind.
Line 4: shimo is a pivot word meaning both "frost" and shimo, "under," as in an undergarment.
Line 5: oki is a pivot word meaning frost "settling," "rising" in the morning, and "leaving" the robe; koso is concluded with the evaluative yuke.
- Author
- Minamoto no Sanetomo
- Source
- Kinkaishu
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