Sent to someone in a year when the court had held New Year Archery.
あづさ弓こころいるまに山里のはなみにはゆく人もあらじな
| azusayumi kokoro iru ma ni yamazato no hanami ni wa yuku hito mo araji na | While a catalpa bow Within their hearts they hold and shoot, To my mountain retreat Blossom viewing coming Will there be no folk at all, most like! |
On a personal grievance and picking fresh herbs.
わかなおふるはるののもりに我なりてうき世を人につみしらせばや
| wakana ouru haruno no mori ni ware narite ukiyo o hito ni tsumi shiraseba ya | For fresh herbs growing On the plains in springtime a warder Have I become— That this world is cruel, to folk Garnering sins, I would let them know! |
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Sent to someone’s residence when the picking of fresh herbs took place on the Day of the Rat.[i]
わかなつむけふにはつねのあひぬればまつにや人のこころひくらん
| wakana tsumu kyō ni hatsune no ainureba matsu ni ya hito no kokoro hikuran | Picking fresh herbs Today, when the first Rat Falls, I wonder: Have folk pined, Their hearts drawn along?[ii] |
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[i] The picking of ‘fresh herbs’ (wakana 若菜) was an important part of the New Year for both aristocrats and commoners alike. Traditionally, this took place on the first Day of the Rat in the First Month, but later, due to the need for a fixed date in the court’s annual calendar of observances—the beginning of the First Month was particularly busy—the celebration of picking fresh herbs was set on the 7th day of the First Month. This date was chosen because there were, in fact, seven ‘herbs’ which were picked for the event. The headnote to the poem means that in the year in which Saigyō wrote it, the 7th of the month happened to fall on the Day of the Rat, too (Gotō 1982, 13).
[ii] Saigyō employs a dual play-on-words in the poem with matsu standing for both matsu 松 (‘pine tree’), evoking the pine seedlings which were one of the plants being picked, and matsu 待つ (‘wait’)—here it is the Day of the Rat and its events which people have being awaiting. In addition, hiku is both hiku 引く (‘pull [up a seedling]’) and hiku 惹く (‘attract’; ‘charm’), here used to refer to the enjoyment which people derive from the Day of the Rat celebrations.
子日する人にかすみはさきだちてこまつがはらをたなびきてけり
| ne no bisuru hito ni kasumi wa sakidachite komatsu ga hara o tanabikitekeri | On the Day of the Rat Before folk has the haze Arisen, and Across the pine seedling plains Drawn up.[i] |
[i] See: Topic unknown. あさみどりのべのかすみのたなびくにけふのこ松をまかせつるかな asamidori / nobe no kasumi no / tanabiku ni / kyō no komatsu o / makaseturu kana ‘Pale green / Across the plains the haze / Does draw, so / Today, the pine seedlings / I will leave to it!’ Minister of Public Affairs Tsunenobu (Goshūishū I: 30). Both poems are built around a play-on-words: one of the Day of the Rat activities was to pull (draw) up (hiku 引く) pine seedlings (as mentioned above). This is echoed in the verb used to describe the haze spreading across the plains, tanabiku 棚引く (‘spread out at length horizontally’).
