At the water’s mouth,
am I perhaps seen there?—
even the frogs,
beneath the water, raise
all their voices as one.
- Meaning
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Am I perhaps seen there at the mouth where the water flows in? Even the frogs, beneath the water, raise their voices together; so I too weep in unison with you.
- Commentary
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Episode Twenty-Seven: "I alone"
A certain man went to a woman’s place and stayed for a single night, and after that he did not go again.
This poem was composed by the man, who overheard from the shadows the woman’s poem: "I alone, I thought, had one so given to thought—none other there was; yet beneath the water’s surface, there was one more."
The man composes this saying that he too weeps in sorrow at not being able to meet her. The woman, however, had meant that the one beneath the water was her own reflection; the man mistakenly believes that it is himself reflected upon the surface.
"All their voices" suggests the frogs crying together in unison, an image for raising one’s voice in concert.
- Source
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Ise Monogatari
- Other
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