濡れ濡れもなほ狩りゆかむはし鷹の
上羽の雪をうち払ひつつ
上羽の雪をうち払ひつつ
- Roma-ji
-
Nurenure mo nao kariyukamu hashitaka no uwaba no yuki o uchiharaitsutsu
- English Translation
-
Though I'm wet and wet,
still I will go on hunting,
from my sparrow hawk's
topmost feathers all the snow
brushing off again and again
- Meaning
- Though I am soaked through, I will still go on hunting, brushing again and again the snow from the outer feathers of my sparrow hawk.
- Commentary
-
Book Four Winter Poems 281
Even soaked by the snow, the hunter will not give up but press on, brushing the snow from the sparrow hawk's feathers. The spirit of a hunter who keeps on hawking in falling snow is drawn through the gesture of clearing the snow from the hawk's wings.
Falconry was sung in waka as a sight of the winter fields. Poem 276 in this book and the next poem, 282, also sing of the sparrow hawk.
Poems 277 through 293 in this book center on snow, with poems on falconry set among them at 281 through 283.
The author, Michinari, is Minamoto no Michinari. A son of Minamoto no Katakuni, he served as Governor of Chikuzen. He was a poet of the age of Emperor Ichijō and is one of the Thirty-Six Poetic Immortals of the middle ages.
First line, 'nurenure mo', means though soaked and soaked, repeating nure to stress going on through the falling snow.
Second line, 'nao kariyukamu', means still I will go hunting, using the volitional mu. The poem breaks after the second line and the lower half is inverted.
Third line, 'hashitaka no', is the small hawk used in falconry, also sung in poem 276 and the next poem, 282.
Fourth line, 'uwaba no yuki o', means the snow on its outer feathers.
Final line, 'uchiharaitsutsu', means brushing it off, tsutsu expressing repetition.
- Author
- Minamoto no Michinari
- Source
- Kinyo Wakashu
- Prev Poem
-
Hatsuyuki wa maki no ha shiroku furinikeri ko ya onoyama no fuyu no sabishisa
- Next Poem
-
Hashitaka o torikau sawa ni kage mireba waga mi mo tomo ni toyakaeri seri