Spin & Discover Kakekotoba!
Poem 9: Ono no Komachi
Try to find the kakekotoba hidden in the poem and tap it.
The word you tap will spin right where it is, revealing its two meanings in turn.
花の色は
うつりにけりな
いたづらに
わが身世にふる
ながめせしまに
Commentary
The word "nagame" is a kakekotoba.
A kakekotoba layers two meanings onto a single word that sounds the same either way.
Here, "nagame" carries both "眺め" (gazing absently) and "長雨" (long spring rains).
The poet's grief over the cherry blossoms fading away in vain overlaps with the image of herself gazing blankly at the steady spring rain, lost in thought — the passing of the season and the passing of her own youth are compressed into a single word.
Packing two scenes into just thirty-one syllables is exactly what makes kakekotoba so appealing.
Vocabulary
The color of cherry blossoms — used as a symbol of fleeting beauty.
To fade, to lose color.
In vain, to no purpose.
Rain falls.
Time passes.
Rain that falls steadily for a long stretch of time.
Gazing blankly while lost in thought.