夕なぎに門渡る千鳥波間より
見ゆる小島の雲に消えぬる
見ゆる小島の雲に消えぬる
- Roma-ji
-
Yūnagi ni towataru chidori namima yori miyuru kojima no kumo ni kienuru
- English Translation
-
In the evening calm
plovers crossing the strait
have vanished into
the clouds above the islet
seen between the waves
- Meaning
- In the stillness of evening, the plovers crossing the strait have vanished into the clouds hanging over a little island seen between the waves.
- Commentary
-
Book Six Winter Poems 645
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Topic unknown."
This is the fifth poem of the plover sequence. Plovers crossing a strait in the evening calm vanish into the clouds over a small island seen between the waves. The headnote continues from the preceding poem with no topic given, and the circumstances of composition are not recorded.
The author, "the Later Tokudaiji Minister of the Left," is Fujiwara no Sanesada. A son of the Minister of the Right Fujiwara no Kinyoshi, he rose to Minister of the Left. He was called the Later Tokudaiji Minister of the Left to distinguish him from his grandfather Fujiwara no Saneyoshi, the Tokudaiji Minister of the Left.
The scene is the calm of evening, and the place is a strait within sight of a small island.
The direct occasion is not recorded.
The first line, "yūnagi ni," means "in the evening calm," when the wind drops and the sea grows still.
In the second line, "towataru chidori," "to" means a narrow channel between lands, such as a strait or river mouth: "plovers crossing the strait."
The third line, "namima yori," means "from between the waves" and modifies "miyuru," seen, in the fourth line.
The fourth line, "miyuru kojima no," means "of the small island that can be seen."
The last line, "kumo ni kienuru," means "have vanished into the clouds," with "nuru" as the attributive form of the perfective auxiliary "nu," and closing on the attributive leaves a lingering resonance. Following the plovers with the eye until they are lost in the clouds over a distant island, the poem captures the whole flight in a single poem, singing of plovers not by their cries but by their forms. Where the preceding poem caught the plovers through a single cry at night, this poem catches them as forms vanishing into the evening sky, so that voice and form make a pair.
- Author
- Fujiwara no Sanesada
- Source
- Shin Kokin Wakashu
- Other
-
- When evening comes, the sea wind blowing over, in far Michinoku at the Jewel River of Noda the plovers are crying
- Over the white waves wing brushing wing they fly, the plovers of the beach; the cry that sounds most sorrowful is the single cry at night
- In the wind off the bay on the beach of Fukiage the beach plovers— the waves must be rising in, for they cry at midnight
- The moon shines clear— yet who would come here to see? In the land of Kii a plover of Fukiage is crying all alone