KKS 5
Text
題しらず
よみ人しらず
梅が枝に来居る鶯春かけてなけどもいまだ雪はふりつつ
Translation
Circumstance unknown
Poet unkown
The warbler that comes and sits (2) / on the plum branch (1) / extending to spring / is crying and yet / snow keeps falling.
Explanation
Like poem 4, this poem focuses on the imagery of the snow (using similar language to poem 3) and the warbler. This time the warbler is actually on the scene, perched on a newly introduced spring image: the plum branches. The use of "branch" suggests the spring flower still has not bloomed. Since the warbler's cry was held to be a harbinger of spring's coming, the poet hears that cry but still sees the snow falling -- another poem about the clash between the seasonal change and the actual scenery. There is a Saibara folk song with the same text as this poem, and this may have suggested to Heian readers a simple, old song.
Detailed Notes
- 春かけて
- This is a notoriously difficult line. かく has a lot of different meanings, and there is a paucity of examples from this period of poetry of "time word + かく" -- we must ignore later examples since it seems clear that even by the end of the Heian period this line was no longer understood. The older commentaries interpret this as "it has become spring." The {{Denju|Engoki} seems to be the first commentary to suggest that 春かけて actually connects to the 5th line, and means that the snow has been falling from winter into spring. This is the theory given by prominent Edo-period scholars like Keichu and Norinaga. The Seigi agrees that it means "from winter into spring" but applies that to the warbler's crying, not the snow falling.
- In the modern period, most earlier commenters seem to support the Seigi's interpretation. Takeoka lists a number of different interpretations, and notes that [time + かけて] is only used in three places in contemporary poems -- once in the Ise monogatari and twice in the SIS. According to Takeoka, the prose context of the Ise poem (in dan 96) makes it clear that 秋かけて in the poem means "putting my hopes in autumn". However, it should be noted that Takeoka's own Ise monogatari zenhyoshaku makes it clear that the 秋かけて in this line is subject to a large number of interpretations as well. Based on this, Takeoka's reading of this poem is that the warbler is promising us listeners that it actually is spring, despite the falling snow.
- Katagiri's reading is entirely different; he understands this as "aiming towards spring" or "sending [the warbler's] thoughts towards spring". This interpretation is found in some old commentaries as well.
- Given this extreme disagreement among prominent scholars of the KKS, I think we have to admit we just don't know what this line means. Takeoka's commentary is a good source to see the range of interpretations in both pre-modern and modern commentary.
- いまだ
- According to Katagiri, this word is only used in 3 times in the KKS, all in anonymous poems. So this may have an archaic feel to it (if these anonymous poems are all assumed to be late-Nara early-Heian poems.
Analysis
Old judgments
- The Waka juttei classifies this as 華体. There's no definition of what these styles mean but the other examples given under this heading also deal with flowers.
- The later pseudo-Teika Teika jittei classifies this as 濃様.
- Shunzei says that "even now" this poem is interesting; that may have represented potential criticism against the poem for its simple and direct style. Teika includes it in his Teika hachidaisho.
This poem is related to a Saibara folk song which is the same text with chanted hayashi between the lines. Katagiri writes that the Saibara texts were being put into fixed form around the same time as the KKS.
There are clear links between this and poem 4; both mention the warblers and the snow. Kaneko and Miura both have a similar analysis of the two poems, that they show the contrast between the "feeling" warbler and the "unfeeling" snow, and the poet's annoyance at the snow and longing for spring. On the other hand, Sogi felt that all three images -- the snow, plum blossoms, and warbler -- were being praised by the poem.
Kubota sees surplus-feeling (余情) in the way that the simple scene (of a warbler sitting on a branch) suggests the poet's longing for spring, and also projects that feeling onto the warbler. He disagrees with Kaneko, putting the focus of the poem on the longing for spring rather than lamenting spring's lateness.
Takeoka, based on his analysis of the 春かけて line, interprets the poem as the warbler struggling as hard as it can to tell us spring is here, despite the snow before our eyes. The uncertainty over the 華体 designation (see above) is clear in the fact that Takeoka and Katagiri both point to how their interpretations fit that designation, despite them being different.
This poem is close in feeling to MY 4286 in volume 19:
- みそのふの竹の林に鶯はしば鳴きにしを雪はふりつつ
- In the grove of bamboo growing in my garden the warbler cries now and then, but snow is still falling.
As mentioned in the notes on いまだ above, the anonymous poems are often thought to be of an older style closer to the MY than the contemporary KKS poems.
- 鶯はなけどもいまだふる雪に杉の葉しろき逢坂の山
- The warbler cries but the cedar leaves are still white with the falling snow: Osaka Mountain. (SKKS 18, Emperor Gotoba)
A winter poem by Fujiwara no Tameie:
- としのうちの雪を木ごとのはなと見てはるをおそしときゐるうぐひす
- The warbler, coming to sit, thinking spring is late when he sees the old year snow as flowers. (Shoku kokin wakashu 679)
A celebratory poem by the Emperor:
- むめがえによよのむかしのはるかけてかはらずきゐるうぐひすのこゑ
- The voice of the warbler that has come to sit on the plum branches passing into spring, unchanged from many years back. (Shoku kokin wakashu 1863)