KKS 32
Text
題しらず
よみ人しらず
折りつれば袖こそ匂へ梅花ありとやここに鶯の鳴く
|
ori-tsure-ba |
I broke it off |
Notes
Other sources:
Analysis
The next 13 poems are about blooming plums, followed by four on their scattering. The first four blooming plum flowers are focused on the scent. The basic meaning of the poem is clear: the scent on the poet's sleeves has made the warbler think there are plum blossoms in his garden. The oldest comments on the poem are mostly in praise (conversely, Kaneko(1927) thought that it lacked a true sense of nature).
It wasn't until the late Edo period that the specifics of the poem came under discussion. The Jidenkai thought that all the poems in this section had a love meaning or subtext. Kubota(1937) agreed that there is a love subtext (with the warbler standing in for a man and the plum flower the woman). But most commenters do not mention this.
The next question is about the reality of the scene. Broadly speaking there are two ways to understand it. The first is that this is an entirely fanciful exaggeration for poetic effect (obviously a flower would not transfer so much scent to a sleeve that it could be detected). But another possibility is that this is actually about the incense in the poet's robes, which would be strong enough to be smelled. Perhaps not strong enough to lure a warbler, but this reading involves less exaggeration. McCullough notes the application of the mitate (elegant confusion) idea, but here applied to a bird rather than the usual application to the poet.
Finally, Takeoka and Katagiri both note the inspiration from Chinese poetry. Katagiri concludes (along with Kubota) that this poem is probably nearly contemporary with the compilers despite the lack of attribution.
