山川の水はまさらで時雨には
紅葉の色ぞ深くなりける
紅葉の色ぞ深くなりける
- Roma-ji
-
Yamakawa no mizu wa masarade shigure ni wa momiji no iro zo fukaku narikeru
- English Translation
-
The mountain stream's
waters do not rise at all,
yet in the showers
it is the color of the leaves
that has grown so deep instead
- Meaning
- The water of the mountain stream does not rise, yet with the winter showers it is the color of the autumn leaves that grows deeper.
- Commentary
-
Book Four Winter Poems 259
The winter showers, though they are rain, do not swell the mountain stream; instead they deepen the color of the leaves. The poem overturns the common sense that rain makes rivers rise and finds the work of the showers in the deepening hue of the leaves.
Setting 'rise' against 'grow deep', the wit lies in seeing not the amount of water but the depth of color increase.
From poem 257 through poem 266 in this book come poems on the sights of early winter, such as showers and colored leaves.
The author, Eien, was a son of Fujiwara no Nagasuke and a monk of Kōfukuji. He rose to Provisional Archbishop and, for his poems on the cuckoo, was called the Archbishop of the First Song.
First line, 'yamakawa no', is a stream flowing through the mountains, setting a mountain scene.
Second line, 'mizu wa masarade', means the water does not rise, using the negative conjunctive de.
Third line, 'shigure ni wa', means by the showers, showing their work. As with 'as the winter showers fall' in poem 257, it follows the belief that showers dye the leaves.
Fourth line, 'momiji no iro zo', means it is the color of the leaves, zo binding with the attributive keru in the final line, set against the water level of the second line.
Final line, 'fukaku narikeru', means has grown deep, closing with the attributive of the exclamatory keri.
- Author
- Yoen
- Source
- Kinyo Wakashu
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Shiguretsutsu katsu chiru yama no momijiba o ika ni fuku yo no arashi naruramu
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Kaminazuki shigure no ame no furu mama ni iroiro ni naru suzukayama kana