Kokinshu 20

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Text

梓弓　おして春さめ　けふふりぬ　あすさへふらば　若菜つみてむ

Translation

[Topic unknown] [Poet unknown]

[The catalpa bow / is drawn] Spring rain everywhere / has fallen today. / If it falls tomorrow, too / let's pick the young shoots.

Notes

梓弓おして春さめ

An あづさゆみ is a bow made of wood from the catalpa tree. Its purpose here is as a 枕詞 connecting to 春, because the bow is drawn (張る) back. Usually 梓弓 connects directly to 春. Here おして is inserted, and the role of that word is the subject of dispute. Katagiri and Takeoka both agree that おして applies to the falling rain, meaning that it is falling everywhere. In this they followed Mabuchi's second KKS commentary (打聞), but in his previous commentary (続万葉) he supported an older theory that it connects to つむ, meaning pluck all the flowers. There's some uncertainty where おす can apply to some action of the bow or whether it only has the "all encompassing" meaning.

Analysis

The main interpretive question here is what the fourth line means. The majority opinion is that if it will only rain tomorrow too, the spring shoots will finally grow and we can go pick them. Katagiri rejects this reading because the previous poem already says that people in the capital are picking shoots. He supports a theory from the Kokin eigasho and the Seigi: if it also rains tomorrow, we'll just have to get wet since we're so eager to go pick shoots. We're not going to be put off another day.

Other sources

• 新選和歌２７
• 古今和歌六帖４６１・雨
• 拾玉集３４７７. This is a series of 100 poems on KKS poems. Jien's poem for this is:

春雨のふるからをののあづさ弓おして今こそわかなつみてめ

Since the spring rain has some, on Ono Plain let us go now and pick young shoots.

• 千五百番歌合２４１９判詞. The judge seemed to be complaining that the Left's poem used a pillow word with no additional associated words, but cited this as an example of an old poem doing the same.
• 俊頼髄脳　悦目抄　和歌密書
• 三五記　定家八代抄

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