ささら浪まもなく岸を洗ふめり
なぎさ清くは君とまれとか
なぎさ清くは君とまれとか
- Roma-ji
-
Sasaranami ma mo naku kishi o araumeri nagisa kiyoku wa kimi tomare to ka
- English Translation
-
The rippling waves keep
washing at the shore, and do
not stop — and if the
strand is clean, is that to say
my lord, stay here a while yet
- Meaning
- The rippling waves keep washing at the shore without stopping. And if the strand is clean, is that to say: my lord, stay here a while?
- Commentary
-
172 The Rippling Waves
The Teiji Emperor used constantly to make pilgrimage to Ishiyama. Hearing that the provincial governor complained that the people were worn out and the province would be ruined, he gave orders to estates in other provinces, and had provisions brought from them for his journey. The Governor of Ōmi, anxious and afraid of what the emperor might have heard, and unwilling to let him simply pass by, built extraordinarily fine temporary halls at Uchide beach on the road home, planted fine chrysanthemums, and prepared an entertainment. The governor himself, in his fear, hid elsewhere and left only Kuronushi in place. As the emperor was passing, a courtier asked why Kuronushi was sitting there. The emperor too had his carriage stopped and asked why he was there; and when the company put the question, Kuronushi answered with this poem. Delighted with it, the emperor stayed, gave gifts to the company, and then went home.
The Teiji Emperor is Emperor Uda, who appears in the first and second sections. Ishiyama is the Ishiyamadera in Ōmi. Uchide beach lies on the shore of Lake Biwa. Kuronushi is Ōtomo no Kuronushi, counted among the six poetic geniuses.
The setting is Uchide beach, where the governor had built halls and planted chrysanthemums and then hidden himself, leaving only Kuronushi.
What prompted the poem was the emperor's question why he was there.
Delighted with it, he stayed, gave gifts, and went home. A single poem halts an imperial progress, and the section closes there.
The rippling waves of the first line set down the lakeshore.
They wash at the shore without stopping, in a grammar of inference from what the eye sees: the waves come in again and again.
The third line supposes the strand clean — clean because the waves have washed it.
The closing asks whether that means his lord should stay. The waves are washing the shore clean, and perhaps that is an invitation to remain. Asked why he is there, he says nothing of his own position and answers only with the water in front of him — and makes an invitation of it. It is the improvisation of a man left alone where his superior has hidden himself in fear.
- Source
- Yamato Monogatari
- Other
-
- The fire that burns in- side a heart no one knows of sends up no smoke at all: it only smoulders on and smoulders, and is not seen
- On the peak of Fuji there is a fire that never goes out — and yet yours only smoulders: that, it seems is a cold heart after all
- Over this ruined house where the mugwort has grown the warbler is calling someone is coming — and whom am I supposed to wait for
- I have come, but have no practised words to say it with — so the warbler is calling, and calling to tell you, since I cannot