Kokinshu 34
Text
やどちかく 梅の花うゑし あぢきなく 松人のかに あやまたれけり
Translation
[Topic unknown] [Poet unknown]
Near my house / the plum trees that I planted / useless / I mistake them (5) / for the scent of the one I await (4).
Notes
- やど
- This can be used as both "house" and "garden", although the meanings may overlap here since the image is simply the plum trees near the poet's house. Takeoka notes that やど for "house" seems to be a poetic word since いへ rarely occurs in poetry.
- 梅の花うゑし
- The RT form at the end is used to nominalize the clause -- "the plum trees that I planted" or "the fact that I planted the plum trees."
- あぢきなく
- The etymology and exact meaning of this word are uncertain, but both Takeoka and Katagiri agree with Eigasho that it indicates something that was done for a particular purpose but that is was in vain. It would seem to be acting adverbially on the next predicate, but Katagiri interprets it as an interjection applying to the whole poem; perhaps with a feeling like "Alas!" Several medieval commentaries note that this word was no longer acceptable to use in poetry at the time.
- 松人
- Teika often uses 松 to write the word "wait" even when there is no play on words (as there is not here).
Analysis
As with the previous poem, the commentators vacillate on whether we should read this as a love meaning or not. The weight of opinion is with the love reading, and the few that reject it seem to be doing so out of a belief that the seasonal volumes cannot contain love poems. An alternate idea given by some medieval commentaries is that it's based on Bai Juyi's poem 李夫人, where the Emperor recalls Lady Li after her death when he smells plum blossoms. Both Katagiri and the Shin zenshu suggest Chinese models as well, though not as specifically.
If anything this poem has a more blatant love meaning than the previous one, although as the Hichu notes, it's the inversion of the previous poem -- this time confusing scent for a person.
Katagiri considers this a possible screen painting poem showing a woman waiting in a house with plums trees. The poem itself is entirely the woman's thought, with no indication that she is gazing out over the flowers. Takeoka points to the あぢきなく as the hinge of the poem, almost direct enough to make it a haikai (comic, or casual) poem.
Other Sources
- 猿丸集３１. Prose preface まへちかき梅の花のさきたりけるを見て
- 和歌一字抄 袋草子