Previous poem | Volume 1 Contents | Next poem

Text

春はる立つ・日よめる

大河内躬恒

春立つ・と　ききゝつるからに　かすが山　消え・あへぬ　雪の花と見ゆらん

Translation

Read on the first day of spring.

Ōshikōchi no Mitsune

"Spring has come" / having heard this / Kasuga Mountain's / not yet vanished / snow seems to look like flowers.

Textual Notes

よめる] ナシ (行・慶)
かすが] よしの (荒・片) Mount Yoshino is more associated with snow than Kasuga, although Kasuga has the spring association that Yoshino lacks.

Other Sources

躬恒集（大成 I.232,II.181,III.256). The poem is not found in the text of the Mitsune collection that the SKTK editors used as their main text.
金玉集　三十人撰　三十六人撰　古来風体抄　定家八代抄 This was apparently a favored poem of Teika, Shunzei, and Fujiwara no Kinto.
歌合文永二年七月２. The judge, Shinkan, was commenting on the losing right poem. The poem had clouds on the mountain be mistaken for flowers. Shinkan did not like this image, and wondered if the poet had GSS 2 in mind.
沙石集　The SKTK lists this as poem 190; it apparently occurs in variant manuscripts but I'm not yet sure exactly how it fits in.
五代歌枕

Notes

ききつるからに: つる is the RT of the つ auxiliary, showing completion. からに means "as soon as..."

消えあへぬ雪: Rather than simply meaning "snow that has not yet vanished", 竹岡正雄 in his comments to KKS 7 says that this specifically indicates snow that should be melting (because it's now spring) and is about to melt, but has not melted yet. Katagiri's comments in the 古今和歌集全評釈 seem to support this reading.

見ゆらん: Along with the からに, 全釈 says that this expresses a reason ("Is it because we just heard 'spring has come' that the snow looks like flowers"). Other modern translations also support this reading.

Analysis

Following the KKS precedent, the GSS continues the spring volume with poems evoking the lingering snow of early spring, and the clash between the calendar season and the natural world. This is a public, occasional poem typical of the KKS style. Kudo notes that putting 立春 after 正月一日 is peculiar to the GSS.

Although Kasuga plains appears in several KKS spring poems (17, 19, 22), Kasuga mountain only appears in poem 364, a "celebration" poem where it's used by association with the Nara Shrine on it. The mountain does appear in the MYS with spring associations, such as poem 1845:

鶯之　春成良思　春日山　霞棚引　夜目見侶

うぐひすの　はるになるらし　かすがやま　かすみたなびく　よめにみれども

It seems to have become the warbler's spring. Even though I see mist on Kasuga Mountain at night.

Also 1843, which appears in a variant form as SIS 3.

昨日社　年者極之賀　春霞　春日山尓　速立尓来

きのふこそ　としははてしか　はるかすみ　かすがのやまに　はやたちにけり

Yesterday the year ended, and today the spring mist is rising on Kasuga Mountain.

Using Kasuga Mountain with snow, however, seems specific to Mitsune's poem, and the image does not occur in later imperial anthologies.

The image of snow confused for flowers is one that goes back to Chinese poetry. In the Japanese tradition, the theme occurs in the MY, as well as the KKS. KKS 7 (poet unknown) is particularly close to Mitsune's poem: 心ざしふかくそめてし折りければきえあへぬ雪の花と見ゆらむ

「春を待つ心は、花を待ち望む心」（全釈）