Kokinshu 25
Text
歌たてまつれとおほせられし時によみてたてまつれる
つらゆき
わがせこが 衣春雨 ふるごとに 野辺のみどりぞ 色まさりける
Translation
When [the Emperor] said "Submit a poem," [Tsurayuki] read this and submitted it.
[Ki no] Tsurayuki
My husband's / clothing washing - the spring rain / every time it falls / the green of the fields / grows a shade deeper.
Notes
(See poem 22 for notes on the prose preface, which is the same)
- わがせこが
- This phrase has been subject to a great deal of commentary. Early commenters such as Toshiyori interpreted せこ as "wife" here. But later scholars reject the idea that せこ can have this meaning. Takanao thought this was a mistake for わぎもこ. Sogi seemed to take the position that the first lines were simply a 序 (preface) and did not refer to any actual people. These interpretations seem to have come from the early scholars' interpreting the わが as Tsurayuki himself. But Mabuchi recognized that men composing poems in the voice of women is quite common during the Heian period, and modern scholars agree that Tsurayuki is using this technique here.
- The second question is about the が; is this a possessive or a subject marker? Since women were typically the clothes washers, Katagiri's reading of this as the possessive seems appropriate.
- 衣春雨
- This is a pivot construction, taking はる as 衣を張る (stretch out clothes when washing) and 春雨 (spring rain). This makes the first two lines a preface, but scholars differ on what type of preface it is -- see the analysis for more details.
- ふるごとに
- A minority of scholars sees a secondary meaning for this word of 振る "shake" having some relation to dyeing.
- Some manuscripts read ときに (when the rain falls) rather than ごとに (every time) here.
Analysis
This poem appears in two of Teika's collections of excellent poetry: the Shuka daitai and the Teika hachidaisho.
The main interpretive question for this poem is the role of the first two lines. As mentioned above, they are clearly a preface, but how does the preface relate to the rest of the poem? The most common interpretation among modern scholars is that there is no deep meaning to the preface, but it simply evokes a scene of a woman washing clothes in a country house, looking out at the greenery of spring. This is the reading of Kubota, Matsuda, and Katagiri. Takeoka also generally takes this opinion but questions whether the clothing somehow relates to the "green" of the final line.
Takeoka's speculation is grounded in readings beginning with the Chokudenkai, who continued to read this section as a reflection of Tsurayuki's frustrated political hopes. In this reading, the "green" is the green of the 6th rank robes. Kaneko points to Tales of Ise 41 which also involves clothes washing and a green robe representing a low rank. He considers this poem to be directly based on the Ise story but few other scholars take it this strongly. Miura, like Kaneko, rejects the idea that this is reflecting Tsurayuki's failed political hopes but still reads this as the wife of a low ranking man, adding to the sadness of the scene. On the other hand, Matsuda and Katagiri both think the mood is positive, with a sunny image of the clothes washing. Katagiri wonders if this could be a screen painting poem, and perhaps this is closest to capturing the true mood of the poem.
Other sources
- 新選和歌３３
- 古今和歌六帖４６４・雨・貫之. Line 3 ふるからに
- 千五百番歌合１０３判詞. The judge criticized the Left's poem (わぎもこが衣はるさめふるからにすそのの草ぞいろまさりゆく by Sanuki) for being too close to KKS 25 and awarded the victory to the Right.
- 秀歌大体 三五記 定家八代抄
- 俊頼髄脳 袖中抄 歌林良材 和歌密書