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]
15
[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’).
