KKS 58
Text
折れる桜をよめる
Read on a broken off branch of cherry blossom
貫之
誰しかもとめて折りつる春霞たち隠すらん山の桜を
|
tare shikamo |
Who could it have been |
Notes
Other sources:
Analysis
The basic meaning of the poem is fairly clear: the poet wonders at the difficulty of finding this cherry blossom given that they are concealed in the mountains behind the spring haze.
Beyond this basic meaning there is a fair amount of disagreement about the exact setting of the poem. One possibility is that it is a poem of thanks to someone for bringing the blossom as a present. Both pre-modern and modern scholars have read it this way, but there have also been voices of disagreement. Mabuchi thought this would have had to be stated in the prose preface, while Katagiri thought that the first line would not really fit in a poem of thanks.
Another reading is that the poet is seeing this branch in a vase in someone's house and reading it as praise of the owner. Katagiri connects the poem with poems 51, 54, and 55, imagining the flower viewing visit from the standpoint of someone who didn't go.
Takeoka interprets the "mountain cherry" as suggesting a woman, thus creating a kind of fantasy world through personification of the haze. He thinks the strength of the ending particles in the first two lines create an accusatory and critical tone of the person who broke the branch. This would not fit with either a poem of thanks or praise of a householder, but the preface does not specify either of those settings.
Matsuda(1968) criticized the poem's unclear expression for leading to these multiple interpretations, but the Shinzenshū found this poem typical of Tsurayuki, and Mabuchi praised the depth of feeling and interest.
