Hunting all the day,
Now at dusk I shall lodge with
The weaving maiden—
To the banks of Heaven’s River
I indeed have come at last.
- Meaning
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After hunting all day until dusk, I will seek lodging with the weaving maiden; I have come to the banks of the Heavenly River.
- Commentary
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82. The Heart in Spring
Long ago there was a prince called Prince Koretaka. Beyond Yamazaki there was a detached palace at a place called Minase, and every year when the cherry blossoms were in full bloom he would visit that palace. At such times he would always bring with him the man who was then the head of the Right Horse Bureau.
They did not devote themselves much to falconry but spent their time drinking wine and delighting in composing poems. At a residence by the Yodo River at Katano they sat beneath a splendid cherry tree, and people of many different ranks among the attendants composed poems.
After leaving those cherry blossoms and returning toward the Minase palace, night fell. One of the attendants had a servant bring wine from Katano. In search of a suitable place to enjoy the wine, they came to a place called Amanogawa. When the head of the Right Horse Bureau was about to offer wine to the prince, the prince said, “Compose a poem on the theme that you hunted at Katano and came to Amanogawa, and then present the cup.”
The head of the Right Horse Bureau composed this poem in response to the prince’s words.
Amanogawa is another name for the area of Shimeno in present-day Hirakata City, Osaka Prefecture, beside which flows a river called Amanogawa. In the poem the place name is associated with the Heavenly River of the Tanabata legend.
Tanabata also carries the meaning of the weaving maiden who weaves cloth on the loom.
- Source
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Ise Monogatari
- Other
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