KKS 10
Text
春のはじめによめる
藤原言直（ことなほ）
はるやとき花やおそきとききわかむ鶯だにもなかずもあるかな
Translation
Read on the start of spring
Is spring early / or are the flowers slow / I would ask of the / warbler, but even it / seems not to be crying!
Explanation
Spring still does not seem to be here -- the flowers haven't bloomed and the warbler isn't singing. Both of these ideas are expressed through the poetic conceit of asking the warbler about the season.
Detailed Notes
- 花やおそき
- Given the position of this poem in the volume, these flowers are presumably plums
- ききわかむ
- There is some difference of opinion on whether the subject here is the poet, or the warbler (who may be able to listen and tell the difference). Takeoka quotes previous commentators before judging that this must be the poet. There is also a question over the volitional む, which can be either RT, modifying 鶯 ("The warbler that I will ask") or SS, breaking the sentence at the third line. Takeoka once again sums up previous commentators' opinions before declaring his own view that this is RT (which is the majority view).
Analysis
This is basically a poem about the absence of spring imagery -- both flowers and the warbler.
Kensho questioned the propriety of the poet saying he doesn't know if spring is late, since the calendar should specify whether it's spring or not. He uses the word はかなし to refer to this denial of reality. Teika criticized the view of the poem as bad, and included it in his own Teika hachidaisho. But later commentators seemed to agree that はかなし here was being used as a measure of disapproval. Kubota and Matsuda took the word to mean "childish", applied to the idea that you would ask a bird to see if it's spring or not.
But the image of the warbler knowing the start of spring has already occurred in Poem 5, among others. Takeoka takes the はかなし idea as referring rather to the lack of reality -- as in many of these early spring poems, imagery is used through its absence. In this case, both the flowers and the warbler are not there. Seigi correctly reads the supposed "childishness" of asking the warbler as an expression of the poet's feeling at the lack of spring.
Matsuda notes that the next poem is almost like a response to this one.
Other sources
- 新撰和歌１３
- 古今和歌六帖１０・む月・藤原言直
- 拾玉集３４７６. This is a set of 100 poems based on KKS poems. Jien's response was:
- 春はとし霞かかれる梢より花ぞおそきと鶯のなく
- The warbler is crying that spring is late, and the flowers are early coming from the haze-wreathed branches.