GSS 4

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Text

ある人のもとに、にひまいり新参の女の侍はべりけるが、月日久ひさしく経へて、睦む月のついたちごろに、前まへゆるされたりけるに、雨の降ふるを見て

よみ人しらず

白雲しらくもの　うへ上しる知けふ今日ぞ　春雨の　ふるにかひある　身とはしりぬる

Translation

A woman entered into service at the place of a certain person, and after many days and months, around the first of the year she was permitted in their presence, and she looked at the falling rain.

Poet unknown

It is today when I know above the white clouds (1-2) / I have come to know that my body (5) / is worth the falling (4) / spring rain (3).

Textual Notes

• にひまいりの] あたらしくいできたりける（荒・片*・堀・慶・坊）
• うへしるけふぞ] のぼれるけふぞ（荒・片・安・堀・標ィ）

Other Sources

• 古今和歌六帖 ４７７・雲

Notes

新参り

This appears to refer to the woman newly taking service. The other use of the phrase in the Imperial poetry collections is in the preface to Shikashu 407, where it refers to a gentlewoman serving an Empress: 「にひまゐりし侍りける女のまへゆるされてのち、ほどなく身まかりにければよみ給ける」 This preface may also refer a similar situation.

女の侍りけるが

The grammar of this phrase is common in the prose prefaces of the GSS. The が particle is still functioning in its old use to connect two nouns, but serves as a kind of subject marker. The clause here is "internally headed", that is, we have the woman who is newly arrived who is then allowed in the presence of the house's master.

前ゆるされ

This phrase also occurs in the Shikashu preface mentioned earlier; it seems that initially a servant would not be allowed to appear directly before the Empress or whoever she was serving.

白雲の上

The word しらくも is unvoiced -- see MYS 3602 (之良久毛). 雲の上 typically refers to the palace, but if the woman here is serving in the palace, ある人 is an unusual way to refer to the person she is serving. Given that the poem also appears in the 古今和歌六帖, it may be that the context is a fictional invention or that the context was disrupted somehow in transmission. Katagiri suggests that しら may suggest 知ら（ぬ）, but 注釈 disagrees, citing insufficient evidence that this was done.

春雨のふる

波流佐米ハルサメ(MYS 4138). 「枕言のやうにおきて、『降る』を『経る』にいひかけたり」（新抄）

かひある

There may be a play on 峡 here, in connection with the clouds.

しりぬる

ぬ completion marker, in RT form because of the ぞ earlier in the sentence.

Analysis

After the first three public-style poems, the GSS moves into a sequence of four private poems on early spring themes. Since 5-7 deal with picking new shoots, they link better to poem 3. However, since poem 4 is a new year poem, the compilers placed it first. The compilers in general group the public poems and private poems separately.

The prose preface is vague -- the most sensible context for this would be a handmaiden or gentlewoman in the service of an Empress, but the preface does not seem to fully support that reading. Kifune uses ご主人様 in his translation which suggests a woman in a man's household, but 雲の上 would be an odd way to express that unless it were the Emperor himself. Kifune goes on to say 「宮中や後宮ではない。作者は、宮仕えの経験のなかった若い女房」. Kudo also uses ご主人様 in his explanation. 注釈 does not take a position, and 和歌大系 seems to support the idea of a woman in a man's household.

As Katagiri notes, spring was often used as a symbol of youth and blessing. The poem is similar to ones found in the KKS that display gratefulness to the Emperor, especially ones written by older people. The KKS would normally place these in the miscellaneous or celebration books, however.

This is also the first of many poems in the GSS that have “poem tale”-like prefaces -– although these poems can be found scattered throughout the imperial anthologies, the anonymous “poem tale” compositions are especially common in the GSS.

Cranston interprets this as a poem of complaint rather than praise, perhaps reading it sarcastically. Using "above the clouds" for a non-Imperial person might heighten the sarcasm?

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