Gosenshu 7

Gosen wakashu Volume 7: Autumn 3 後撰和歌集巻第七　秋下

351

題知らず

Topic unknown

よみ人も

The poet as well

ふぢ袴きる人なみや立ちながらしぐれの雨にぬらしそめつる

hudibakama　　　　　　　　　Fujibakama
kiru hito nami ya        Perhaps since no one wears it
tati-nagara              It stands sewn, ready
sigure no ame ni         In the rains of late autumn
nurasi-some-turu         Starting to get drenched and stained.

Fujibakama

Eupatorium japonicum. The origin of this flower's name is not certain, but the hakama suggests the word for trousers, thus furnishing the wordplay in many poems dealing with it.

Stands sewn

Play on tatu (standing, and cut cloth)

Drenched and stained

Play on some (beginning to, and dyeing something). The dyeing also suggests the autumn leaves.

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Fujibakama occur in three KKS autumn poems and just this one GSS poem; the image does not reoccur again until the Kin'yoshu. This is a simple play on the name of the flower, but the extended wordplay and the image of the flowers standing out ready to be worn furnish a kind of comic charm. The three KKS poems (239-241) portray the flower as a cast off, discarded, or forgotten pair of trousers. This poem presents the opposite situation; a finished pair set out and ready to be worn, but no one to use it.