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.

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.