Spin & Discover Kakekotoba!
Poem 98: Junior Second Rank Ietaka
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.
風そよぐ
ならの小川の
夕暮れは
みそぎぞ夏の
しるしなりける
Commentary
The word "nara" is a kakekotoba.
A kakekotoba layers two meanings onto a single word that sounds the same either way.
Here, "nara" carries both "楢" (nara, an oak tree) and "ならの小川" (Nara-no-Ogawa, the name of a stream).
The evening by the Nara stream, where the wind rustles softly through the oak leaves, feels as if autumn has already arrived. And yet, the purification rite taking place is the very proof that it is still summer.
Layering the name of a tree onto the name of a river within the single word "nara," the poem plays on the unexpected truth that, despite the cool riverside scene, it is in fact still summer.
Packing two meanings into just thirty-one syllables is exactly what makes kakekotoba so appealing.
Vocabulary
The wind blows in a soft rustle.
A Shinto purification rite performed in a river. Here, refers to the Summer Purification Rite (Nagoshi no Harae), held on the last day of the sixth lunar month.
Proof, evidence.
In this poem, evidence that it is indeed summer.
It was indeed. "Keru" expresses exclamation.