Kokinshu 27

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Text

西大寺のほとりの柳をよめる

Read about the willows near the Nishi Odera temple

僧正遍昭

Bishop Henjo

浅緑　糸よりかけて　白露を　珠にもぬける　春の柳か

Translation

Light green / thread twisting down and threading / passing through as a gem (4) / the white dew (3): / the spring willow

Notes

西大寺

A number of manuscripts, and the Template:Teika read this as にしのおほでら. It was one of the "Seven Great Temples" of Nara, established in 765.

浅緑

The light green color of the willow. There is some question over the grammatical relation of this word to the rest of the poem, but the majority reading seems the most natural, that this is the color of the "thread" (浅緑の糸).

珠にもぬける春の柳か

The image here is of the willow threading the dew as if they were beads with holes in them. The か is emphatic, and by Template:Denju's time this was felt to be a no-longer-acceptable substitute for かな.

A number of alternate texts read 珠にもぬくか　春のあをやぎ instead. The Template:Nativist prefers this version, positing that someone changed the last line to 柳か to avoid duplicating the mention of the color in the first line, and then had to change the fourth line to prevent the duplication of か. Template:Modern and Katagiri both agree that this is a likely theory; Kubota thinks the alternate reading sounds more in the style of the MYS.

Analysis

This poem appears in two collections of good poetry: Teika's Template:Teika as well as the pseudo-Teika Template:Teika.

The connection to the previous poem is clear since both use similar imagery and language.

In the history of interpretation of this poem, a major question is the significance of the temple in the prose preface. Does it simply say where the poem was read, or does it affect the interpretation of the poem itself? Template:Edo thought that it set up a contradiction between the temple, where Buddhist truth is learned, and the deceit of the willow and dew confusing people. This extreme view is not accepted by other commenters, but Template:Modern thinks that Henjo is imagining rosary beads. Template:Modern agrees, but later commenters discount even this. Katagiri and Takeoka both state that the preface already existed when the KKS encountered the poem and that it does not have to carry any deep significance. Takeoka notes that most of Henjo's poems specify a location.

The origin of the imagery is Chinese, although the "dew as gems" is mostly associated with autumn (SNKBT). The Template:Denju warns against using "this style" of poem but it's not clear what exactly this refers to. Template:Denju and Kaneko both see this as a particularly characteristic poem of Henjo's, with Sogi pointing to the careful construction, and Kaneko to the "mad humor".

Ise composed a similar poem which was later included as 新勅撰集２３:

あをやぎの枝にかかれるはるさめはいともてぬけるたまかとぞ見る

The spring rain falling on the blue willows looks like threaded beads.

Later poems

• 新古今和歌集７５　青柳のいとに玉ぬくしらつゆのしらずいくよの春かへぬらむ
• 続拾遺和歌集４２　雨中柳といへる心を　鎌倉右大臣　青柳のいとよりつたふ白露を玉とみるまで春雨ぞふる
• 続千載和歌集４４　前中納言定家　あさみどり玉ぬきみだる青柳の枝もとををに春雨ぞふる
• 拾遺愚草２０６　朝みどり露ぬきみだる春雨にしたさへひかる玉柳かな　１９６８　あさみどり玉ぬきみだる青柳の枝もとををに春雨ぞふる　員外５１９　あさみどり露の玉のをぬきもあへず柳のいとに春雨ぞふる

Other sources

• 古今和歌集・仮名序 (Used as an example of Henjo's poetry)
• 新撰和歌５９
• 遍昭集２. Preface にしでらのやなぎを
• 和歌一字抄　続歌仙落書
• 秀歌大体　桐火桶　歌林良材
• 源氏物語注・柏木

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