KKS 1

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Text

ふるとしに春たちける日よめる

Read on the day when spring began in the old year.

在原元方

Ariwara no Motokata

年の内うちに春は来にけり　一年ひととせを去年こぞとやいはむ　今年ことしとやいはむ

toshi no uchi ni             Within the year
haru wa ki-ni-keri           I see that spring has arrived!
hitotose wo                  One year:
kozo to ya iwa-mu            Shall we call it last year?
kotoshi to ya iwa-mu         Shall we call it this year?

Notes

spring began in the old year

This refers to the interaction of the solar and lunar calendars. The start of the season was determined by counting lunar months, with "intercalary" months inserted every so often to bring the 360-day lunar year and the 365 day solar year into alignment. But the "first month" of the lunar calendar could (and often did) start before the solar year had begun, thus resulting in the situation described in this poem.

I see that

The suffix keri, when used in poetry, indicates a realization or surprise.

One year

Although hitotose "one year," it's not entirely clear what the reference is. Takeoka sums up many of the previous theories. Katigiri and Takeoka both point to other uses of ひととせ in contemporary poetry, including this one from Motokata himself

一年に再び咲かぬ花なればむべ散ることを人はいひけり　（後撰集 春下、１０９）

Because flowers do not bloom twice in one year, that's why people talk so much about them scattering. (Gosenshu 109)

Both Katagiri and Takeoka conclude that the meaning here is: Spring, which should only come once in a year, has come twice. So do I refer to this entire year as "this year" or "last year"? I think the suggestion may be that this "single year" can be referred to in both ways despite it just being one year.

や...む

This structure shows the speaker's doubt.

Analysis

Opinions on this poem's quality have varied through the ages. Template:Oldest wrote "This poem has strong logic, is pleasant to the ear, and is a splendidly composed poem." The "logic" perhaps refers to question at the end about which year to call it. The pseudo-Teika writings Template:Teika and Template:Teika assign the poem to the 麗歌 category, as a "pine style" poem [add definition], and another pseudo-Teika writing Template:Teika includes the poem as an example of a style the reader should imitate. Teika himself included it in his Template:Teika collection of good poems.

The Meiji period includes the poet Masaoka Shiki's famous criticism of this poem, which he calls (in McCullough's translation) "disgustingly insipid" and "silly." However, we must remember that Shiki was trying to go against the received wisdom that all waka had to follow the Kokinshu. McCullough herself describes Motokata's poetry in general as containing "sterile wit," and seems to implicitly accept that the poem is not very good, but that it works very well in its position in the anthology. But these criticisms seem to come from a surface reading of the poem, where the only purpose of the poem is a witty question about what term to use.

But many other commenters see the power of this poem in its implied longing for the coming spring (Template:Modern, Template:Modern, Katagiri). Kubota considers the poem dry except for the anticipation of spring that lies behind it. Template:Modern explains the poet's confusion as childish (although not necessarily in a deprecating way), but it's no more childish than other feigned confusions (e.g. between plum blossoms and snow) found in the collection. Takeoka notes that the poem contains no seasonal imagery, and thus functions largely as a "prelude" to the spring volume and the collection as a whole. He praises the construction of the poem, noting the "strength" of the first two lines contrasted with the weakness and doubt of the remainder. The poem progresses from a "scene" to a "reason." He finds the poem in stark contrast to both the kanshi style as well as that of the MY. However, he quotes another scholar, Kojima Noriyuki, who considers this a mediocre poem by a mediocre poet, but one that served its purpose at the start of the volume.

The question of why this poem was placed first is one that has also been addressed throughout the history of Kokinshu criticism. Later Imperial collections assigned the first poem of the collection typically to a high-ranking or prestigious person, and it seems to have been an honor to be placed first in a collection, or first in a book. It's not clear at all that the KKS compilers intended this by their choice of the first poem, but many early commenters assumed that there had to be some reason why Motokata was chosen. One explanation wast that Motokata was the grandson of Ariawara no Narihira. Other commenters tried to read the poem as a summing up of the title of the collection: Template:Denju thought the poem contained both 古 (implicitly in "last year") and 今, thus reinforcing the title of 古今和歌集. He was following the teachings of To no Tsuneyori, the force behind the Kokin Denju secret teachings. The suggestion is that the 古 and 今 are somehow representative of heaven and earth, and thus good government. In this he was following Chinese precedent, which connected poetry to virtuous living.

The Confucian-inspired readings were rejected by Keichu and commentators after him. Modern commentators see this as simply the best place to put this poem about the calendar vs. nature, and that there is no particular honor to Motokata. Matsuda sees the poem as providing a keynote to the "start of spring" poems, which commonly evoke the difference between spring on the calendar, and what the world actually looks like.

Man'yoshu 4492, by Otomo no Yakamochi, is a precursor to this poem. Matsuda sees the MY poem as simplistic, in contrast to Motokata's "complex and splendid" poem.

月数めばいまだ冬なりしかすがに霞たなびく春立ちぬとか

When we count the months, it is still winter. And yet the mist is rising, and spring has come.

Other poems clearly borrow Motokata's language, such as GSS 1100, by Mitsune:

昼なれや見ぞまがへつる月影を今日とや言はむ昨日とや言はむ

The brightness of the moon looks like daytime; is it today, or yesterday?

Finally, this poem appears in an anecdote in the 1283 setsuwa collection Shasekishū (沙石集). A monk who knows nothing about poetry is presented with this poem by his disciples. His only takeaway is that it reflects the fleeting nature of life as in Buddhism -- thus showing that people like him view everything as a Buddhist lesson.

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