雪の色を奪ひて咲ける卯の花に
小野の里人冬ごもりすな
小野の里人冬ごもりすな
- Roma-ji
-
Yuki no iro o ubaite sakeru unohana ni ono no satobito fuyugomori su na
- English Translation
-
Stealing the color
of the snow, the deutzia
has come into bloom;
people of the Ono village,
do not shut yourselves for winter
- Meaning
- Seeing the deutzia blooming white as if it had stolen the color of the snow, O people of Ono, do not mistake it for winter and shut yourselves indoors.
- Commentary
-
Book Two Summer Poems 98
The deutzia flowers bloom as though they had stolen the whiteness of snow, and the poet calls on the people of snowy Ono not to mistake them for snow and retreat indoors for winter. The familiar conceit of likening deutzia to snow is playfully cast as an appeal to the villagers.
Ono, at the western foot of Mount Hiei, was known as a snowy village, as in the Tales of Ise, where the hero makes his way through the snow to visit Prince Koretaka.
From this poem through poem 103, poems on the deutzia follow one another, likening the flower to snow, to moonlight, to hedges and to sacred ropes.
The author, Kinzane, is Fujiwara no Kinzane. A son of Fujiwara no Sanesue, he rose to Provisional Major Counselor and also served as Master of the Crown Prince's Household. He was an active poet in the circle of Emperor Horikawa.
First line, 'yuki no iro o', is the whiteness of snow, announcing at once the conceit of seeing deutzia as snow. The line has an extra syllable.
Second line, 'ubaite sakeru', means blooming after stealing the snow's whiteness, a personification in which the flower has made the snow's color its own.
Third line, 'unohana ni', means at the sight of the deutzia, taking up the white flower that stands for early summer.
Fourth line, 'ono no satobito', is the people of Ono, a place famous for deep snow, and they are the ones addressed.
Final line, 'fuyugomori su na', uses the prohibitive na: do not shut yourselves in for winter. The poet's fancy that they will mistake the flowers for snow is expressed as a command.
- Author
- Fujiwara no Kinzane
- Source
- Kinyo Wakashu
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Tamakashiwa niwa mo hahiro ni nari ni keri ko ya yū shidete kami matsuru koro
- Next Poem
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Izure o ka wakite oramashi yamazato no kakine tsuzuki ni sakeru unohana