軒端打つ真白の鷹の餌袋に
をき餌もささで返しつるかな
をき餌もささで返しつるかな
- Roma-ji
-
Nokiba utsu mashiro no taka no ebukuro ni okie mo sasade kaeshitsuru kana
- English Translation
-
For the pure white hawk
tethered by the eaves, I sent
the bait bag back,
not even a scrap of lure
placed in it to call it home
- Meaning
- I sent back the bait bag of the pure white hawk tethered at the eaves without so much as a morsel of lure inside.
- Commentary
-
Book Nine Miscellaneous Poems I 565
The poet sent back the bait bag of the pure white hawk kept at the eaves without even putting in the lure that calls a hawk back. Singing of returning an empty bait bag used in falconry, the poem seems to make playful use of hawking terms for having sent back a gift bag with nothing in it.
Together with the next poem, 566, and 567 after it, it forms a row of poems on birds, a sequence of verses with a playful spirit.
First line, 'nokiba utsu', seems to mean kept at the eaves, a hawk tethered under the edge of the roof.
Second line, 'mashiro no taka no', means of the pure white hawk; white hawks were prized.
Third line, 'ebukuro ni', means in the bait bag, the bag carried in falconry to hold the hawk's food.
Fourth line, 'okie mo sasade', means without putting in even a lure, okie being bait to call a hawk back. The negative particle de is used.
Final line, 'kaeshitsuru kana', means I have sent it back, the attributive of the perfective tsu followed by the exclamatory kana.
- Source
- Kinyo Wakashu
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Tagui naku yo ni omoshiroki tori nareba yukashikarazu to tare ka omowamu