KKS 69

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Text

題しらず

Topic unknown

よみ人しらず

Poet unknown

春霞たなびく山の桜花うつろはんとや色変はりゆく

harukasumi tanabiku yama no sakurabana utsurowa-n to ya iro kawari-yuku

On mountains where The spring haze is rising Cherry blossoms Are they preparing to fall By changing their color?

Notes

preparing to fall

The meaning of utsurou in this line is the subject of a great deal of commentary. The key problem is that in other poems the verb seems to mean "change color," thus raising the question of why the 5th line seems to repeat the same idea. The 日本国語大辞典 cites Man'yōshū evidence for four potentially relevant meanings of the word (which ultimately derives from utsuru meaning "move"):

• Go from prosperity to decline (MYS 1045)
• Change(fade) color (MYS 4109)
• (Flowers) fall/scatter (MYS 3982)
• Vanish (MYS 3916).

This has resulted in several different readings of the line, which I will discuss in the Analysis section below since they involve readings of the poem as a whole.

Other sources:

• Kokin waka rokujō
• Teika hachidaishō

Analysis

The first 21 poems of the second volume are about falling/scattering cherry blossoms, following from the poems at the end of the first volume that were anxiously looking forward to the scattering. The volume opens with two poems that are still looking forward to the event, but with more certainty.

As mentioned in the notes section, this poem's interpretation is heavily influenced by the problem surrounding the meaning of utsurou, but also what relevance the haze in the first line has to the poem. Early commentaries (including Teika) interpreted it as "the blossoms are about to fall." Tō no Tsunenori (Ryōdō kikigaki) interpreted utsurou as a stronger fading of color than that of the 5th line. He seems to have been the first to identify the fourth line as the poet guessing the motives of the blossoms in changing color, and also to bring up the haze's role in the poem. This involves a related issue that cherry blossoms don't really "change color" in the way that other flowers do, thus raising the possibility that this supposed color change may just be an illusion created by viewing the blossoms through the haze (Katagiri cites poem 102 as a parallel).

Other commentators starting with Mabuchi interpret the word as "fall" -- thus, "Are they changing color because they are intending to scatter?" As we move into the modern period, it seems that the majority opinion is that the "color changing" is just the fading or lightening of the color as the blossoms start to die, and that utsurou means to move from profuse blooming to withering as they are about to scatter. Katagiri does bring up the view through the haze as well, and questions the "will of the flowers" interpretation of Tsunenori and many other scholars up to Takeoka. (Takeoka once again interprets the poem has having an undertone of a woman, who is about to leave the poet for another man.)

There is wider agreement on the general setting of the poem: the poet looking out at the mountains from somewhere far off. Cranston notes the difference between the more impartial and "delightful" poems surrounding the plum blossoms scattering, and the more anxious and sorrowful poems about the cherry blossoms.

Kitamura Kigin recorded in the Kyōtanshō that Matsunaga Teitoku praised this poem for its high quality.

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