KKS 43
Text
水のほとりに梅の花咲けりけるをよめる
Read on plum flowers blooming at the edge of water.
伊勢
春ごとに流るる川を花とみて折られぬ水に袖やぬれなん
|
haru goto ni |
Every spring |
Notes
Other sources:
Analysis
The basic meaning of the poem is fairly clear: the poet tries to pick the reflection of the blossoms in the water, and gets her sleeves wet. The differences among commentators primarily concern any potential deeper meaning the poem may have.
One question is what the "every spring" of the first line means, and commentators are broadly split into two groups. One group says that this refers to past springs, and thus Ise is saying that she knows from past experience that she can’t pick the reflections, but they’re just so beautiful that she’s going to do it again this year. The other group sees "every spring" as referring to future springs, so that the poet is saying she will continue to do this every year from now on.
The major interpretive discussions about this poem have to do with its appearance in the Ise Collection. Poems 43 and 44 appear there in reverse order, with the following preface: "Emperor Uda went to the Kyōgoku Villa and held a flower banquet, and invited Ise to come, so she came. Flowers had fallen into the pond." With this preface, the flowing river would be a man-made stream in the garden, flowing into the pond. The setting of the Collection would indicate this poem was composed in the moment, displaying Ise’s poetic skill. The praise of the clear pond and the suggestion of future springs could also work to praise Emperor Uda himself.
However, the Ise Collection version of the poem may represent a later fictional setting for this existing poem, rather than authoritative historical information. Despite this, the great majority of both pre-modern and modern commentators interpret the poem with its Ise Collection setting. Only Katagiri offers a substantially different reading: that this evokes a lazy, slow spring day where the poet is relaxing by a river and dipping their sleeves into the water.
