KKS 11

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Text

春の初めの歌

壬生忠岑

春きぬと人はいへどもうぐひすのなかぬかぎりはあらじとぞ思ふ

Translation

A poem about the start of spring

Mibu no Tadamine

"Spring has come" / people say, but / as long as the warbler doesn't cry (3/4) / I think not.

Explanation

As with the previous poem, the warbler is not yet here to herald spring. The calendar may say that spring has come, but we need the bird to make us really feel that it's here.

Detailed Notes

春の初めの歌

This headnote is almost the same as the one to the previous poem, so why is it repeated? Katagiri's explanation seems like the best: According to the Tadamine Collection, this poem was read in 905 for a screen painting at a celebration of the 40th birthday of Fujiwara no Sadakuni. So in contrast to the previous poem, which was actually read on the first day of spring (...によめる), this is simply a poem on the topic of the start of spring.

A further question arises -- this poem was composed in 905, right before the compilation of the KKS. Tadamine himself was one of the compilers and presumably remembered the circumstance of this poem. Why was it not specified, then? Katagiri's conjecture is that by suppressing the artificial nature of the poem, it reads more easily as a response to poem 10.

あらじ

Takeoka says that this is not simply ないだろう but acts as a response to 春きぬ; it was possibly a vernacular usage of the time. But would this show up in a poem?

とぞ思ふ

The last line seems to have 8 mora and thus be an example of ji-amari. However, the Template:Teika suggests reading it as とぞもふ, which would keep it at 7 syllables. Other seeming examples of ji-amari may have involved vowel elisions of this type.

Analysis

Template:Oldest included this in his ninefold division of waka quality, in the exact middle (中品中), described as "Not having any excellent points, or any bad points, but simply how things are." Katagiri's explanation for this is that the poem has no expression of feeling but simply expresses the poet's opinion in natural language. If あらじ is indeed a spoken vernacular usage as Takeoka suggests, perhaps that also prevented this poem from being seen as the height of excellence.

This poem continues from poem 10 in expressing spring imagery through its absence. The Template:Denju first picked up on this, assigning it the same adjective (はかなし) that Template:Oldest and others applied to poem 10. Other commentaries agree -- whereas poem 10 was asking the warbler about spring, this is about spring coming on the calendar. The poet refuses to believe that it's actually spring as long as the warbler is not there. Template:Modern calls this an "elegant joke" with a play on the different meanings of "spring".

Takeoka likens the poem to a small drama, noting the parallelism of the two halves, and the use of subject-predicate pairs (giving the poem a prose-like feel). Both he and Katagiri quote a poem from Bai Juyi:

先遣和風報消息　続教啼鳥説来由

First the wind comes bringing tidings, then the birds cry saying that spring has come.

Other sources

• 古今和歌六帖８・む月・ただみね
• 忠岑集１４. Prose preface はるたちて、うぐひすのおそくなきしに
• 九品和歌　奥儀抄　詠歌一体　三五記

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