KKS 15
Text
[寛平御時后の宮の歌合の歌]
[A poem at the Empress' Poetry Competition in the Kampyō era]
在原棟梁
春たてど花も匂はぬ山里は物うかる音に鶯ぞ鳴く
|
haru tate-do |
Though spring has come |
Notes
- beauty
- A constant problem in interpreting poetry from this era is the word niou, which seems to have originally meant "beautiful" and later developed the "good scent" meaning it has in modern Japanese. Since both meanings are used with flowers in the Heian period, it can be difficult to know which meaning was meant, or if possibly both meanings were meant in some cases.
- The consensus seems to be that here it means "beauty", although Katagiri allows that the scent meaning is possible since these flowers are plums. Takeoka takes the idiosyncratic interpretation of "unopened flowers", but Katigiri rejects this interpretation.
- weak, occasional (mono ukaru)
- Earlier commentaries interpreted this literally as ushi (sad), and Kaneko(1927) and Takeoka echo this. But Takanao thought it meant a weak or occasional cry, and this is the position Katagiri takes. Interestingly, Kaneko and Katagiri both cite the same Bǎi Jūyì poem (given below) in support of their differing opinions.
Other sources:
Analysis
The earliest comment on this poem is from Fujiwara no Norinaga(12th c.), who says that this is a jukkai 述懐 poem -- that is, the sad cry of the warbler is reflecting the sad heart of the poet at the lack of flowers. Some commentaries go further than this and say that this was written while the poet was in exile, but this is a minority position. There is no proof for these exiles, and Katagiri thinks these are coming from a strong feeling that poetry must reflect the heart and conditions of the poet.
Several commentators note that this poem seems to echo lines of Bǎi Jūyì, for instance:
{Quote|花寒懶発鳥慵啼
The flowers, cold, open sadly, and the birds are sadly crying.}}
The word mono ushi ("sad" or "weak/occasional") is often applied by commentators to the poet instead. Some of this seems to be discomfort with applying the word to the bird, since a bird's cry cannot truly be "sad". Kaneko contrasts it with the full throated crying in the next poem. Kaneko also feels the poet is located in the mountains, which Katagiri suggests as a possible reading. Katagiri also sees this poem as hinting towards poem 17, when the plums first appear.
Kaneko also disparages the poem as overly logical and lacking feeling.
