はし鷹の白斑に色やまがふらむ
とかへる山に霰降るらし
とかへる山に霰降るらし
- Roma-ji
-
Hashitaka no shirafu ni iro ya magauramu tokaeru yama ni arare furu rashi
- English Translation
-
With the sparrow hawk's
white-flecked feathers, are their hues
now blurred together?
On the mountain where hawks molt
hail must be falling down
- Meaning
- Have they become impossible to tell apart from the white flecks of the sparrow hawk's feathers? On the mountain where the hawks molt, hail must be falling.
- Commentary
-
Book Four Winter Poems 276
Hail must be falling on the mountain where hawks molt, and the poet imagines the white flecks of the sparrow hawk's feathers blurring into the white of the hail. Pairing the falconer's hawk with winter hail, the wit lies in the confusion of whites.
From the next poem this book turns to poems on snow, and among them poems 281 and 282 also sing of the sparrow hawk.
The author, Masafusa, is Ōe no Masafusa. A son of Ōe no Narihira, he rose to Provisional Middle Counselor. Known as the foremost scholar of his day, he was called Gōsotsu from his service as Provisional Governor-General of Dazaifu, and one of his poems appears in the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu.
First line, 'hashitaka no', is a small hawk used in falconry.
Second line, 'shirafu ni iro ya', means with the white-flecked feathers, the color, the particle ya binding with the attributive ramu in the third line.
Third line, 'magauramu', means are they blurred together, using the present conjecture ramu. The poem breaks after the third line.
Fourth line, 'tokaeru yama ni', uses tokaeru, the molting of a hawk's feathers, for the mountain where hawks shut in their mews change their plumage. 'Molting' (toyakaeri) is also sung in poem 282 in this book.
Final line, 'arare furu rashi', means hail must be falling, closing with the inference rashi.
- Author
- Oe no Masafusa
- Source
- Kinyo Wakashu
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