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Created page with "Previous poem | Next poem == Text == [題しらず] [Topic unknown] [よみ人しらず] [Poet unknown] 梓弓おして春雨今日降りぬ明日さへ降らば若菜摘みてん {{PoemPair |orig= <poem> azusayumi oshite harusame kyō furi-nu asu sae fura-ba wakana tsumi-ten </poem> |trans= <poem> The birch bow is drawn And everywhere, spring rain Has fallen today. If it falls tomorrow, too Let's pick the young shoots. </poem> }} == Not..."
 
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== Notes ==
== Notes ==


;Birch bow
:An ''azusayumi'' is a bow made from the Japanese cherry birch. Its purpose here is as a pillow word connecting to ''haru'' (spring), because the bow is drawn (''haru''). The word ''oshite'' is here inserted between; some scholars say this was another word having to do with drawing the bow, but its main purpose in the poem is to mean "everywhere."


Other sources:
Other sources:
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== Analysis ==
== Analysis ==
The last of the anonymous group of poems leads from the general "field" poems into the ones where young shoots are actually being picked.
The main interpretive question here is what the fourth line means. The majority opinion is that if it will only rain tomorrow too, the spring shoots will finally grow and we can go pick them. Katagiri rejects this reading because the previous poem already says that people in the capital are picking shoots. He supports a theory from ''Kokin eigashō'' and ''Seigi'': if it also rains tomorrow, we'll just have to get wet since we're so eager to go pick shoots. We're not going to be put off another day.


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Latest revision as of 17:10, 5 June 2026

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Text

[題しらず]

[Topic unknown]

[よみ人しらず]

[Poet unknown]

梓弓おして春雨今日降りぬ明日さへ降らば若菜摘みてん

azusayumi
oshite harusame
kyō furi-nu
asu sae fura-ba
wakana tsumi-ten

The birch bow is drawn
And everywhere, spring rain
Has fallen today.
If it falls tomorrow, too
Let's pick the young shoots.

Notes

Birch bow
An azusayumi is a bow made from the Japanese cherry birch. Its purpose here is as a pillow word connecting to haru (spring), because the bow is drawn (haru). The word oshite is here inserted between; some scholars say this was another word having to do with drawing the bow, but its main purpose in the poem is to mean "everywhere."

Other sources:

Analysis

The last of the anonymous group of poems leads from the general "field" poems into the ones where young shoots are actually being picked.

The main interpretive question here is what the fourth line means. The majority opinion is that if it will only rain tomorrow too, the spring shoots will finally grow and we can go pick them. Katagiri rejects this reading because the previous poem already says that people in the capital are picking shoots. He supports a theory from Kokin eigashō and Seigi: if it also rains tomorrow, we'll just have to get wet since we're so eager to go pick shoots. We're not going to be put off another day.

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