KKS 55
Text
山の桜を見てよめる
Read on seeing mountain cherries
素性法師
Priest Sosei
見てのみや人に語らん桜花手ごとに折りていへづとにせん
|
mi-te nomi ya |
By only looking |
Notes
- Let each one
- Some commentators interpret tegoto ni as "in both hands" instead.
Other sources:
Analysis
This poem forms a pair with the previous one, although in this case the poet (and his friends) can take the blossoms home.
The use of the word kataru is noted by several commentators: this is not simply telling the friends about the blossoms but recounting the story of the entire day. Tō no Tsuneyori said that this was a good form for spring poems. The "extra feeling" of the suggestion of additional people with Sosei has also been praised. Finally, McCullough uses this as an example of a common rhetorical device of Sosei: "the question...[used] to preface or explain a proposed course of action"(372-373).
