道の辺に清水流るる柳陰
しばしとてこそ立ち止まりつれ
しばしとてこそ立ち止まりつれ
- Roma-ji
-
Michi no be ni shimizu nagaruru yanagikage shibashi tote koso tachitomaritsure
- English Translation
-
By the roadside there
clear water is running, and
a willow's shadow
and I stopped, meaning to stay
only a little while there
- Meaning
- By the road, clear water running, and the shade of a willow: I stopped there, meaning to stay only a moment.
- Commentary
-
Book Three Summer Poems 262
Headnote: topic unknown.
The third poem on coolness, on halting under a willow on a journey. The headnote gives no topic and nothing is known of the circumstances.
The Monk Saigyo, whose lay name was Sato no Norikiyo, served Retired Emperor Toba as a guard of the northern quarters and took orders at twenty-three. This is his third appearance in this book, after the two hundred and seventeenth and eighteenth poems.
The time is summer; the place is the shade of a willow beside a road.
The occasion of composition is not recorded.
The poem is among Saigyo's best known.
The first line means beside the road, and puts the poet on a journey from the start.
The second line names the source of the coolness.
The third line ends on a noun, so that the scene is set down complete: clear water, willow, shade, and every condition for stopping is present.
The fourth line means: with the thought of only a little while. Shunzei's hundred and fifty-ninth poem in Book Two also halts on a journey, there to water a horse.
The concessive form at the close answers the emphatic particle, with a perfect auxiliary. By saying that he meant to stay only a moment, the poem implies without stating it that he stayed far longer. The passing of time is never described; only the original intention is given, and the rest is left to the reader.
- Author
- The Monk Saigyo
- Source
- Shin Kokin Wakashu
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