KKS 5

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Text

題しらず　　　　

Topic unknown

よみ人しらず

Poet unknown

梅がえにきゐる鶯春かけて鳴けども未いまだ雪は降つつ

mume ga e ni ki-iru uguisu haru kake-te nake-domo imada yuki wa furi-tsutsu

The warbler that comes And sits on the plum branch Extending to spring Is crying and yet still The snow continues to fall.

Notes

Extending to spring

This line is notoriously difficult, and there are few contemporary examples of "time word + kakete" -- while there are a number of later examples, they may have been written based on the phrase in this poem as a time when the original meaning was no longer certain. There are almost as many explanations as there are commentaries. A number of older commentaries thought this line connected to the last one, and so it was the snow that was falling into spring. Most scholars connect the line to the warbler's crying. Although there is almost no agreement on what the phrase actually means, they seem to fall into three general ideas:

1. The warbler is crying from winter into spring
2. The warbler is sending its thoughts to spring, hoping for its coming
3. The warbler is saying "It's spring!" with its cry

Given the extreme disagreement among prominent scholars it's difficult to say that there is any correct interpretation. Unfortunately, the reading of this line also affects the scholars' overall view of the meaning of the poem.

Other sources:

• Kokin waka rokujō | Shinsen waka
• Korai fūteishō | Teika hachidaishō

Analysis

Like poem 4, this poem focuses on the imagery of the snow (using similar language to poem 3) and the warbler. This time the warbler is actually on the scene, perched on a newly introduced spring image: the plum branches. The use of "branch" suggests the spring flower still has not bloomed. Since the warbler's cry was held to be a harbinger of spring's coming, the poet hears that cry but still sees the snow falling -- another poem about the clash between the seasonal change and the actual scenery.

There is a Saibara folk song with the same text as this poem, but with chanted hayashi sections between the lines. This may have suggested to Heian readers a simple, old song. This could be why Shunzei (in the Korai fūteishō) said that "even now" the poem was interesting.

There are clear links between this and poem 4; both mention the warblers and the snow. Kaneko(1927) and Miura(1943) both have a similar analysis of the two poems, that they show the contrast between the "feeling" warbler and the "unfeeling" snow, and the poet's annoyance at the snow and longing for spring. On the other hand, Sōgi felt that all three images -- the snow, plum blossoms, and warbler -- were being praised by the poem.

Kubota(1937) sees additional feeling (yojō) in the way that the simple scene (of a warbler sitting on a branch) suggests the poet's longing for spring, and also projects that feeling onto the warbler. He disagrees with Kaneko, putting the focus of the poem on the longing for spring rather than lamenting spring's lateness.

Takeoka, based on his analysis of the third line, interprets the poem as the warbler struggling as hard as it can to tell us spring is here, despite the snow before our eyes.

This poem is close in feeling to MYS 4286 in volume 19:

みそのふの竹の林に鶯はしば鳴きにしを雪はふりつつ

In the grove of bamboo growing in my garden the warbler cries now and then, but snow is still falling.

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