KKS 17
Text
かすがのは けふなやきそ わか草の つまもこもれり 我もこもれり
Translation
[Topic unknown] [Poet unknown]
The fields of Kasuga / do not burn them today! / Like the young shoots / my wife is hidden / I am hidden too.
Notes
- かすがの
- In the Tales of Ise version of this poem, this reads 武蔵野. This was a problem for pre-Edo commentators, because the Ise was considered to be an accurate record of the poetry of Narihira, and the KKS also held the authority of Imperial commission.
- Fujiwara no Norikane, in the Waka domosho, suggested that since there is a Kasuga village in Musashi province, the two names are actually the same. Kensho was willing to allow that the Ise version was fictional and had the name changed, but Tsurayuki went with the original version when compiling the KKS. Teika himself seems not to have cared that much about the difference, but commentaries in his scholarly line developed secret teachings about a Musashi burial mound in Kasuga field (as revealed in the Chronicles of Japan). Tsurayuki, being learned enough to know about this, knew that the Ise story actually took place in Kasuga and corrected the record for the KKS.
- Of course, since the Edo period everyone accepts that we simply have two versions of the same poem.
- なやきそ
- な + RY + そ is a negative imperative.
- わか草のつま
- 若草 is acting as a pillow word here, but it has obvious connections to the scene where the poem takes place.
- The Ise version of this poem is written by a woman, so commentators are at pains to prove that つま can be used of a man with cites from the MYS and others. In the KKS context this may be written by a man instead.
- On the other hand, the pillow word 若草 would seem to fit better with a woman than a man.
Analysis
As mentioned in the Notes, this poem appears in the Tales of Ise, part 12, with the first line reading 武蔵野. The surrounding story says that a man abducted someone's daughter and took her to Musashi. Guards came to arrest him and were about to set fire to the field, but the girl cried out and read the poem. The guards then took her away. Earlier Ise commentaries came up with elaborate theories to harmonize the two poems and to explain how this story connected with Ariwara no Narihira, but by the time of Sogi they had given up and accepted this as a fictional story.
The KKS commentaries follow this theme too. Norinaga and the Koan 10 commentary say that this woman is the Nijo Empress and that Narihira captured him. Even Kanera seems to accept that this is about Narihira and suggests that they left off the prose context because readers would be familiar with it from the Ise. But by the time of Sogi and Shohaku they accept it as a fictional story.
Mabuchi has the reading that is the standard one today -- the farmers are going to burn the fields to fertilize the ground, but the poet wants them to wait so that he and his lover can enjoy the field first. Mabuchi notes the old style of the poem and calls it soft and elegant. Other commentators agree that this is an old-style poem, with Kaneko noting the repetition of the last two lines: an uncommon technique in later Heian court poetry. Kubota also cites the breaks at the end of the 2nd and 4th lines as representative of older-style folk song poetry.
According to Masuda, the KKS compilers included the poem here because the burning fields sets the stage for the growing plant shoots in the next block of poems. Originally this was probably a simple folk song, but the Heian poets may have chosen it for its suggestion of the aristocratic practice of picking young shoots at the beginning of spring. There is also a certain similarity between all four of the poems in 16-20, which all feel like rustic, simple folk poems. Some older commentaries like the Seigi read this as a Nara court poem, but the folk reading seems more likely.
Related poems
MYS 14.3452, an Eastern "azumauta" poem:
- おもしろき野をばな焼きそ古草に新草交り生ひは生ふるがに
- Do not burn the beautiful field; there are old grasses growing among the new grasses.
SIS 18, attributed to Hitomaro (this poem also appears in some KKS manuscripts after poem 20)
- 明日からは若菜つまむと片岡の朝の原は今日ぞ焼くめる
- In order to pick shoots from tomorrow, they seem to be burning the Ashita Field in Kataoka.
SKKS 78, Mibu no Tadami. This poem plays on もえ meaning "burn" and "blossom".
- 焼かずとも草はもえなん春日野をただ春の日にまかせたらなん
- The grass will grow even if you don't burn it. So just leave the Kasuga field to the spring sun.
Shoku shui wakashu 24, by Emperor Tsuchimikado:
- 春のきる霞のつまやこもるらんまだ若草の武蔵野の原
- My lover seems to be hidden like the mist covering spring; still in the young shoots of the Musashi field.
Shoku shin kokin wakashu, 186
- から衣すそ野のきぎすうらむなり妻もこもらぬ荻のやけばら
- The pheasant of Suso Field must be angry: the burned field of bush clover where his mate is not hidden.