Ōnusa ni narinuru hito no kanashiki wa yoruse to mo naku shika zo nakunaru

English Translation

The sorrow of one
who has become a great wand
of purification
is that, with no shoal to come
to rest at, so he goes weeping

Meaning

The sorrow of one who has become a great purification wand is that, with no shoal to rest at, he goes weeping so.

Commentary

160 The Purification Wand

While Captain Ariwara — that is, Ariwara no Narihira — was visiting the same Handmaid of Somedono, she sent him "Akihagi o irodoru kaze no fukinureba hito no kokoro mo utagawarekeri", and he answered "Aki no no o irodoru kaze wa fukinu tomo kokoro wa kareji kusaba naraneba". Later, when he had stopped coming, a robe was sent from him with word that he had no one even to wash it for him and would be grateful for her help; so she said that this was surely his own doing, and sent "Ōnusa ni narinuru hito no kanashiki wa yoruse to mo naku shika zo nakunaru". His reply was "Nagaru tomo nani to ka miemu te ni torite hikikemu hito zo nusa to shiruramu". That is the whole of the section.
Captain Ariwara is Ariwara no Narihira, counted among the six poetic geniuses; his son Ariwara no Shigeharu appears in the hundred and forty-third and hundred and forty-fourth sections. The Handmaid of Somedono appears in the hundred and fifty-ninth. The great purification wand was a large staff of paper streamers, touched by many hands in the rite and then set adrift on a river.
The setting is after his visits had ceased. A robe was sent from him with word that he had no one to wash it and would be grateful for her help.
What prompted the poem was that request. She sent it with the remark that this was surely his own doing.
He answered, and that reply closes the hundred and sixtieth section.

The great wand was a staff of paper streamers used in the purification rite; many hands touched it before it was set adrift on a river. Belonging to no one and handled by everyone, it served as a figure for a person with many lovers.
What she calls one who has become such a wand is a man who goes from woman to woman.
The word in the fourth line means a shoal to come to rest at, so that a wand adrift with nowhere to catch and a man with no one to turn to are one image.
The closing says that so he goes weeping, with an emphatic particle governing the verb. To a man complaining that he has no one to wash for him, she answers that this is what comes of being such a wand — refusing the request and naming the reason in the same breath.

Source

Yamato Monogatari

Other