Kokinshu 27
Text
西大寺のほとりの柳をよめる
Read about the willows near the Nishi Odera temple
僧正遍昭
Bishop Henjo
浅緑 糸よりかけて 白露を 珠にもぬける 春の柳か
Translation
Light green / thread twisting down and threading / passing through as a gem (4) / the white dew (3): / the spring willow
Notes
- 西大寺
- A number of manuscripts, and the Bishamon tendo chu read this as にしのおほでら. It was one of the "Seven Great Temples" of Nara, established in 765.
- 浅緑
- The light green color of the willow. There is some question over the grammatical relation of this word to the rest of the poem, but the majority reading seems the most natural, that this is the color of the "thread" (浅緑の糸).
- 珠にもぬける春の柳か
- The image here is of the willow threading the dew as if they were beads with holes in them. The か is emphatic, and by Sogi's time this was felt to be a no-longer-acceptable substitute for かな.
- A number of alternate texts read 珠にもぬくか 春のあをやぎ instead. The Seigi prefers this version, positing that someone changed the last line to 柳か to avoid duplicating the mention of the color in the first line, and then had to change the fourth line to prevent the duplication of か. Kubota and Katagiri both agree that this is a likely theory; Kubota thinks the alternate reading sounds more in the style of the MYS.
Analysis
This poem appears in two collections of good poetry: Teika's Shuka Daitai as well as the pseudo-Teika Kiribioke.
The connection to the previous poem is clear since both use similar imagery and language.
In the history of interpretation of this poem, a major question is the significance of the temple in the prose preface. Does it simply say where the poem was read, or does it affect the interpretation of the poem itself? Keichu thought that it set up a contradiction between the temple, where Buddhist truth is learned, and the deceit of the willow and dew confusing people. This extreme view is not accepted by other commenters, but Kaneko thinks that Henjo is imagining rosary beads. Miura agrees, but later commenters discount even this. Katagiri and Takeoka both state that the preface already existed when the KKS encountered the poem and that it does not have to carry any deep significance. Takeoka notes that most of Henjo's poems specify a location.
The origin of the imagery is Chinese, although the "dew as gems" is mostly associated with autumn (SNKBT). The Eigasho warns against using "this style" of poem but it's not clear what exactly this refers to. Sogi and Kaneko both see this as a particularly characteristic poem of Henjo's, with Sogi pointing to the careful construction, and Kaneko to the "mad humor".
Ise composed a similar poem which was later included as 新勅撰集２３:
- あをやぎの枝にかかれるはるさめはいともてぬけるたまかとぞ見る
- The spring rain falling on the blue willows looks like threaded beads.
Later poems
- 新古今和歌集７５ 青柳のいとに玉ぬくしらつゆのしらずいくよの春かへぬらむ
- 続拾遺和歌集４２ 雨中柳といへる心を 鎌倉右大臣 青柳のいとよりつたふ白露を玉とみるまで春雨ぞふる
- 続千載和歌集４４ 前中納言定家 あさみどり玉ぬきみだる青柳の枝もとををに春雨ぞふる
- 拾遺愚草２０６ 朝みどり露ぬきみだる春雨にしたさへひかる玉柳かな １９６８ あさみどり玉ぬきみだる青柳の枝もとををに春雨ぞふる 員外５１９ あさみどり露の玉のをぬきもあへず柳のいとに春雨ぞふる
Other sources
- 古今和歌集・仮名序 (Used as an example of Henjo's poetry)
- 新撰和歌５９
- 遍昭集２. Preface にしでらのやなぎを
- 和歌一字抄 続歌仙落書
- 秀歌大体 桐火桶 歌林良材
- 源氏物語注・柏木