Translation glossary

梓弓

This word is only used as a pillow word; the wood seems to be the wood of the Betula grossa, or "Japanese cherry birch". I have used "birch bow" for this.

鶯

Either "warbler" or "bush warbler" depending on metrical necessity.

霞

To distinguish this from 霧, I have used "haze" instead of "mist."

題しらず

The term 題 here, a Chinese loan word, seems to refer to the topic of the poem, or perhaps the circumstance of composition. The interpretation of 題しらず is somewhat unclear because some of the poems marked this way in the KKS are by the compilers themselves, and presumably they knew the circumstances of their own composition. There are also poems where it seems the compilers would have known or had access to the topic information but apparently chose not to use it.

Sogi thought this could refer to compositions in the moment, that had no assigned "topic," or one where the poem is on multiple things and a topic cannot be discerned, or where the topic did not actually appear in the poem. Matsunaga Teitoku adds that this can also be topics that are truly unknown, or where the compilers concealed the topic for some reason.

In the modern period, Kaneko and Kubota thought 題 referred to the circumstance rather than the topic, although Takeoka disagrees, citing evidence that 折しらず was available to the compilers if they wanted to talk about the circumstance.

白妙の

This pillow word comes from a term for a type of white fabric made from the bark of the mulberry tree. It sometimes is used as simply a pillow word, but other times does mean clothing itself. "White fabric" or "Of white fabric."

わびし

「どうにもしようがなくて、がっかりしているとか、しょんぼりしているさま」（竹岡）「期待がはずれたり、悲しいめにあったりして、落胆し気力をなくした状態を表す」（時代別）Depressed/downcast/hopeless/sad?