KKS 30

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Text

雁かりの声を聞きて、越こしへまかりにける人を思ひてよめる

He heard the cry of the geese, thought about someone who had gone to Koshi, and wrote this.

凡河内躬恒

Ōshikōchi no Mitsune

春くれば雁かへるなり白雲のみちゆきぶりにことやつてまし

haru kure-ba kari kaeru nari sirakumo no michi yuku buri ni koto ya tsute-mashi

Spring has come So I hear the geese return. On the white cloud road You touch along your way Would that I could send a message.

Notes

Koshi

An area of Japan north of Kyoto that included Echizen, Etchu, and Echigo. The geese are flying north, so Mitsune imagines them going to Koshi where his friend is.

Other sources:

• Kōrai fūteishō

Analysis

As with the previous bird poems, this one focuses on sorrow. The geese are imagined as following a road in the sky, and Mitsune wishes that he could send a message with them the way he might with a traveler on a road.

The poem divides neatly into two parts, with the first sentence (2 lines) giving the scene, and the second sentence giving Mitsune's feeling in response. Kubota(1937) notes that the poem does not make sense without the prose preface, although the situation is not so complex that we might not imagine it ourselves.

Starting with Tō no Tsuneyori, most commentators read this as a direct expression of Mitsune's feeling and having no hidden meaning. However, a minority opinion connects this to the legend of Sū Wǔ. Kubota and Takeoka allow that this legend may be in the background of the poem and influence the imagery, but that it has no major role in the poem.

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