Gosenshu 4
(22v) 後撰和歌集 巻第四 夏
- 夏] 夏歌（行）
147
題しらず
Circumstance unknown
よみ人も
Also the poet
- よみ人も] よみ人しらず（行）
今日よりは 夏の衣に 成りぬれど きるひとさへは かはらざりけり
From today \ the summer clothing \ we begin to wear, but \ the wearers themselves \ do not change, I see.
- さへは
- さへ typically means "On top of X, even Y is true". This seems to be the only instance of the pattern "さへは...negative" in the GSS. There are a few examples of this construction in the medieval period but the only other contemporary example in poetry seems to be from the Fujiwara no Kiyomasa collection 16: ほととぎすかねてしちぎるものならばなかぬよさへはまたれざらまし. The medieval examples also end with the hypothetical ...ざらまし. In any case, the expression is like までも...ない in MJ; it indicates that the predicate extends a certain point but no farther. People change their clothes, but they don't go so far as to change their hearts.
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The summer volume begins with a set of anonymous poems, beginning with two that have no contexts or authors, introducing some of the significant imagery of the first section.
As the weather gets hotter, people change to lighter summer clothing. Katagiri notes that the focus on the hearts of people is characteristic of the GSS, but it's hard to say exactly what the meaning is. The use of hito suggests a love poem with a woman complaining about a man, as in Kigin's reading. But perhaps because this is the opposite of the usual changing hearts of men, Kifune says that the hito is actually the poet herself, and it's her sorrow that doesn't change. Katagiri seems to take this in a more general sense -- people's hearts are not like the light clothing we change into, and thus stay the same.
The love meaning is more evident in Shoku kokin wakashu 1542, which uses this as a honka:
- 今日見れば夏の衣になりにけりうきはかはらぬ身をいかにせん
- Today I see that people have changed to summer clothing. What will happen to my sorrowful heart which does not change?
It's hard to tell what this means for the medieval reading of the poem since it was common to use a non-love poem as a honka for a love poem.
A similar feeling is found in SIS 1002, though about spring:
- あたらしき年にはあれども鶯の鳴く音さへには変わらざりけり
- It's a new year, but it seems that only the sound of the warbler has not changed.
"Summer clothes" is not a common seasonal image in waka. The word なつごろも is mostly used as a 枕詞, with only a handful of poems in the first eight collections referring to actual summer clothing.
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Other sources:
- 亭子院歌合４２, topic 四月, 躬恒. vs. みやまいでてまづはつこゑはほととぎすよぶかくまたむわがやどになけ by 雅固. Mitsune's poem loses. Uda's comments: みぎあぢきなしとてまく.
- 袋草子 - includes the poetry competition. This version's judgment specifies that the fourth line was あぢきなし.