Spin & Discover Kakekotoba!
Poem 28: Minamoto no Muneyuki Ason
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.
山里は
冬ぞさびしさ
まさりける
人目も草も
かれぬと思へば
Commentary
The word "karenu" is a kakekotoba.
A kakekotoba layers two meanings onto a single word that sounds the same either way.
Here, "karenu" carries both "枯れぬ" (has withered) and "離れぬ" (has drifted away, stopped visiting).
By letting a single word, "karenu," receive two very different things at once — "people's visits" and "the grasses" — the poem lets us feel all the more deeply the loneliness of a mountain village in winter, where visitors have stopped coming and the plants have all withered away.
Packing two meanings into just thirty-one syllables is exactly what makes kakekotoba so appealing.
Vocabulary
It is winter above all when the loneliness. "Zo" adds emphasis.
Grows even deeper. "Keru" expresses exclamation.
People coming to visit.
The plants have withered.
People have drifted away and stopped visiting.