KKS 34
Text
[題しらず]
[Topic unknown]
[よみ人しらず]
[Poet unknown]
宿近く梅花植ゑしあぢきなく待つ人の香にあやまたれけり
|
yado chikaku |
Near my house |
Notes
- house
- This can be used as both "house" and "garden", although the meanings may overlap here since the image is simply the plum trees near the poet's house.
- In vain
- The etymology and exact meaning of ajikinaku are uncertain, but both Takeoka and Katagiri agree that it indicates something that was done for a particular purpose but that is was in vain. It would seem to be acting adverbially on the next predicate, but Katagiri interprets it as an interjection applying to the whole poem; perhaps with a feeling like "Alas!"
Analysis
As with the previous poem, the commentators vacillate on whether we should read this as a love meaning or not. The weight of opinion is with the love reading, and the few that reject it seem to be doing so out of a belief that the seasonal volumes cannot contain love poems. An alternate idea given by some medieval commentaries is that it's based on Bǎi Jūyì's poem 李夫人, where the Emperor recalls Lady Li after her death when he smells plum blossoms. Both Katagiri and the Shinzenshū suggest Chinese models as well, though not as specifically.
If anything this poem has a more blatant love meaning than the previous one, although it's the inversion of the previous poem -- this time confusing scent for a person.
Katagiri considers this a possible screen painting poem showing a woman waiting in a house with plums trees. The poem itself is entirely the woman's thought, with no indication that she is gazing out over the flowers. Takeoka points to the ajikinaku as the hinge of the poem, almost direct enough to make it a haikai (comic, or casual) poem.
