ささがにの糸引きかくる草むらに
機織る虫の声ぞ聞こゆる
機織る虫の声ぞ聞こゆる
- Roma-ji
-
Sasagani no ito hikikakuru kusamura ni hataoru mushi no koe zo kikoyuru
- English Translation
-
In the grassy patch
where the spider draws and hangs
its silken threads,
the cry of the weaving insect
can be heard across the field
- Meaning
- In the clump of grass where the spider spins and hangs its threads, I hear the voice of the insect that weaves at the loom.
- Commentary
-
Book Three Autumn Poems 219
From the grass where a spider has strung its threads comes the voice of an insect that sounds like someone weaving at a loom. Pairing the spider's thread with weaving, the poem paints an amusing autumn scene in which the loom insect sings beside the spinning spider.
'The spider's thread' also appears in poem 236 in this book, where it is paired with the fujibakama coming unstitched.
Poems 218 and 219 in this book are poems on insects; after the moon sequence, the scene moves to the insects that sing on autumn nights.
First line, 'sasagani no', uses sasagani, the spider, leading to 'thread' in the second line.
Second line, 'ito hikikakuru', means drawing and hanging its thread, the spider spinning its web. Poem 236 in this book also has 'the spider's thread'.
Third line, 'kusamura ni', means in the clump of grass.
Fourth line, 'hataoru mushi no', is the insect whose cry sounds like weaving at a loom, thought to be the kirigirisu. Thread and weaving are associated words.
Final line, 'koe zo kikoyuru', is a binding in which zo closes on the attributive kikoyuru.
- Source
- Kinyo Wakashu
- Prev Poem
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Tsuyu shigeki nobe ni naraite kirigirisu waga tamakura no shita ni naku nari
- Next Poem
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Tamazusa wa kakete kitaredo karigane no uwa no sora ni mo kikoyu naru kana