Kokinshu 30
Text
かりのこゑをきゝて、こしへまかりける人を思てよめる
凡河内躬恒
春くれば かりかへるなり 白雲の 道行ぶりに 事やつてまし
Translation
He heard the cry of the geese, thought about someone who had gone to Koshi, and wrote this.
Okochi no Mitsune
Spring has come, so / I hear the geese return. / Your white cloud / road, along the way, / I wish you could take a message.
Notes
- こし
- 越, an area of Japan north of Kyoto that included Echizen, Etchu, and Echigo. The geese are flying north, so Mitsune imagines them going to Koshi where his friend is.
- まかりける
- まかる is used of travel from the capital (or within Heian, from the palace).
- かへるなり
- This なり is the so-called 伝聞 suffix which indicates the poet hears the cry of the returning geese.
- 白雲の道
- The "cloud road"; depicting the geese as returning on a road the way a person might. At some point, Edo-period commentators got the idea that 白雪 was a variant reading or even the correct reading, despite it appearing in no extant manuscripts. Perhaps there was a garbled transmission based on the idea that the 道行き was wordplay with 雪.
- 道行きぶり
- The ぶり here seems to be from 触る, indicating that you "touch" something along the way, and thus do it in passing. Katagiri notes that Mitsune seems to have favored the phrase.
- 事やつてまし
- や...まし indicates an impossible hope.
Analysis
As with the previous bird poems, this one focuses on sorrow. Shunzei included the poem in his Korai futeisho, and Sogi (quoted in the Kyotansho) found the last lines to have deep pathos.
Starting with Sogi, most commentators read this as a direct expression of Mitsune's feeling and having no hidden meaning. However, a minority opinion connects this to the legend of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Su_Wu. Kubota and Takeoka allow that this legend may be in the background of the poem and influence the imagery, but that it has no major role in the poem.
The poem divides neatly into two parts, with the first sentence (2 lines) giving the scene, and the second sentence giving Mitsune's feeling in response. Kubota notes that the poem does not make sense without the prose preface, although the situation is not so complex that we might not imagine it ourselves.
Other sources
- 躬恒集３５９. Preface かりのこゑをききて、こしのかたにまかりはべりにしひとをこひて (Taisei versions same as KKS)
- 古来風体抄