Kokinshu 28
Text
題しらず
詠人しらず
ももちどり さへつる春は 物ごとに あらたまれども 我ぞふりゆく
Translation
Topic unknown
Poet unknown
Spring, when the many birds chirp (1-2) / is when all things / are remade, but / my body grows older.
Notes
- ももちどり
- There is general agreement that this is simply 百千鳥 meaning "various birds", although Takeoka disagrees that the ち is the number 1000, explaining it as a suffix for numbers (such as はたち). However, Toshiyori claimed that this was another word for the warbler. Other commentators cited Chinese sources in support, but the theory was generally discounted among the earliest commentators, partly because this poem seems to come after the other warbler poems. But Teika in the Hekiansho showed sympathy for the theory, and in the medieval period the bird was one of the "three birds" of the Kokin Denju secret theories. Even Keichu thought that the Chinese precedent might point towards the warbler, but from Mabuchi on the theory was entirely rejected.
- さへづる春
- Many non-Teika texts read なくなる春 instead.
Analysis
The poem's basic meaning is that in spring everything is made new, but the poet instead is growing old. The feeling is close to MYS 10.1884:
- 四寒過（フユスギテ） 暖来者（ハルシキヌレバ） 年月者（トシツキハ） 雖新有（アラタマレドモ） 人者旧去（ヒトハフリユク）
- Winter passes and spring comes; the years and months are becoming new but people are growing old.
As several commenters note, the KKS version is more personal with the use of 我 rather than 人. The KKS poem also uses sounds to set the scene in the first part of the poem rather than simply calendar facts.
Matsuda and Takeoka both interpret this as more of a miscellaneous poem than a spring poem, noting that the spring imagery isn't central to the poem.
Katagiri's reading is inspired by "praise of the aged" folk songs, and he praises its natural and unaffected rhythm. Teika included it in his Teika hachidaisho collection of good poems.
Other sources
- 定家八代抄
- 俊頼髄脳 和歌童蒙抄 袖中抄 色葉和歌集 (second line なくなる春は)
- 沙石集
Later influence
Fugashu 77, Gotoba-in
- ももちどりさへづる春のあさみどり野べの霞ににほふ梅がえ
- The plum blossoms, beautiful in the mist of the light green field in spring, when the many birds chirp
Shui guso 908:
- もも千鳥こゑやむかしのそれならぬ我が身ふり行く春雨の空