Kokinshu 28

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Text

題しらず

詠人しらず

ももちどり　さへつる春は　物ごとに　あらたまれども　我ぞふりゆく

Translation

Topic unknown

Poet unknown

Spring, when the many birds chirp (1-2) / is when all things / are remade, but / my body grows older.

Notes

ももちどり

There is general agreement that this is simply 百千鳥 meaning "various birds", although Takeoka disagrees that the ち is the number 1000, explaining it as a suffix for numbers (such as はたち). However, Template:Oldest claimed that this was another word for the warbler. Other commentators cited Chinese sources in support, but the theory was generally discounted among the earliest commentators, partly because this poem seems to come after the other warbler poems. But Template:Teika in the Hekiansho showed sympathy for the theory, and in the medieval period the bird was one of the "three birds" of the Kokin Denju secret theories. Even Template:Edo thought that the Chinese precedent might point towards the warbler, but from Template:Edo on the theory was entirely rejected.

さへづる春

Many non-Teika texts read なくなる春 instead.

Analysis

The poem's basic meaning is that in spring everything is made new, but the poet instead is growing old. The feeling is close to MYS 10.1884:

四寒過（フユスギテ）　暖来者（ハルシキヌレバ）　年月者（トシツキハ）　雖新有（アラタマレドモ）　人者旧去（ヒトハフリユク）

Winter passes and spring comes; the years and months are becoming new but people are growing old.

As several commenters note, the KKS version is more personal with the use of 我 rather than 人. The KKS poem also uses sounds to set the scene in the first part of the poem rather than simply calendar facts.

Template:Modern and Takeoka both interpret this as more of a miscellaneous poem than a spring poem, noting that the spring imagery isn't central to the poem.

Katagiri's reading is inspired by "praise of the aged" folk songs, and he praises its natural and unaffected rhythm.

As you can see below, this poem appears in the Sarumaru collection and is listed under Sarumaru's name in several other sources (such as Shunzei's poetry competition and Kinto's "36 poet selection"). Sarumaru is a shadowy figure about whom very little is known, even whether he actually existed or not. Katigiri notes 24 anonymous KKS poems that are also found in the Sarumaru Collection. His conclusion is that the KKS and the Sarumaru Collection both drew from traditional songs.

Other sources

• 古今和歌六帖４４５６・呼子鳥
• 猿丸集４９
• 拾玉集３４７８. Jien's poem: よぶこ鳥うれしくもあるかをちこちのたつきにまよふ山のゆふ暮
• 俊成三十六人歌合３１
• 秘蔵抄　三十六人撰
• 奥儀抄　色葉和歌集　色葉和歌　六花注

Later influence

Fugashu 77, Gotoba-in

ももちどりさへづる春のあさみどり野べの霞ににほふ梅がえ

The plum blossoms, beautiful in the mist of the light green field in spring, when the many birds chirp

Shui guso 908:

もも千鳥こゑやむかしのそれならぬ我が身ふり行く春雨の空

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