Spin & Discover Kakekotoba!
Poem 62: Sei Shōnagon
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.
夜をこめて
鳥のそらねは
はかるとも
よに逢坂の
関は許さじ
Commentary
The word "Ōsaka" is a kakekotoba.
A kakekotoba layers two meanings onto a single word that sounds the same either way.
Here, "Ōsaka" carries both the place name "逢坂" (Ōsaka) and "逢ふ" (to meet).
You may fool the Hangu Pass with a rooster's crow, as in the old Chinese legend — but the Ōsaka Pass, never. Layering the meaning "to meet you" onto the place name "Ōsaka," the poet gently but wittily turns down a man's advances.
Packing two meanings into just thirty-one syllables is exactly what makes kakekotoba so appealing.
Vocabulary
While it is still before dawn.
Imitating a rooster's crow. A phrase drawn from an old Chinese legend.
Even if you try to deceive me.
Never, absolutely not. Followed by a negative.
A checkpoint on the border between Yamashiro and Ōmi Provinces.
Its ruins lie in present-day Ōtsu City, Shiga Prefecture.
Will surely never allow. "Ji" expresses negative intention.