KKS 27

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Text

西大寺のほとりの柳をよめる

Read on the willows near the Nishi Ōdera temple.

僧正遍昭

Bishop Henjō

あさ緑いとよりかけて白露を玉にもぬける春の柳か

asamidori ito yori kake-te shiratsuyu o tama ni mo nuke-ru haru no yanagi ka

Thread of light green Twisting down and threading Passing through The white dew like a gem The spring willow!

Notes

Nishi Ōdera temple

This is one of the "Seven Great Temples" of Nara, established in 765. (It is now called Saidai-ji.)

Other sources:

• Shinsen waka | Shūka daitai

Analysis

The image of the poem is the willow threading the dew as if they were a string of beads with holes in them. The connection to the previous poem is clear since both use similar imagery and language.

In the history of interpretation of this poem, a major question is the significance of the temple in the prose preface. Does it simply say where the poem was read, or does it affect the interpretation of the poem itself? Keichū thought that it set up a contradiction between the temple, where Buddhist truth is learned, and the deceit of the willow and dew confusing people. This extreme view is not accepted by other commenters, but Kaneko(1927) thinks that Henjō is imagining rosary beads. Miura(1943) agrees, but later commenters discount even this. Katagiri and Takeoka both state that the preface already existed when the KKS encountered the poem and that it does not have to carry any deep significance. Takeoka notes that most of Henjo's poems specify a location, and Katagiri thinks this may result from the compilers copying their source for Henjō's poems without change.

The origin of the imagery is Chinese, although the "dew as gems" is mostly associated with autumn (Shintaikei). Sōgi and Kaneko both see this as a particularly characteristic poem of Henjō's, with Sōgi pointing to the careful construction, and Kaneko to the "mad humor".

This poem is used in the Kana preface's "old commentary" as an example of Henjō's poetry.

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