吉野なる夏実の川の川淀に
鴨ぞ鳴くなる山陰にして
鴨ぞ鳴くなる山陰にして
- Roma-ji
-
Yoshino naru natsumi no kawa no kawayodo ni kamo zo naku naru yamakage ni shite
- English Translation
-
In Yoshino,
where the Natsumi River
lies in a still pool,
the wild ducks can be heard crying
in the shadow of the hills
- Meaning
- In Yoshino, in a still pool of the Natsumi River, I hear the wild ducks crying, there in the shadow of the hills.
- Commentary
-
Book Six Winter Poems 654
Headnote: "Topic unknown."
This is the third poem of the waterfowl sequence and the last of that sequence. In a still pool of the Natsumi River in Yoshino, wild ducks are heard crying in the shadow of the hills. The headnote gives no topic, and the circumstances of composition are not recorded.
The author, "Prince Yuhara," is Prince Yuhara. A grandson of Emperor Tenji and a son of Prince Shiki, he was a poet of the Nara period.
The scene is winter, and the place is a still pool of the Natsumi River in Yoshino, Yamato Province.
The direct occasion is not recorded.
This poem is collected in Book Three of the Man'yōshū as a poem by Prince Yuhara.
The first line, "yoshino naru," means "in Yoshino," with "naru" as the attributive form of the auxiliary of existence "nari."
The second line, "natsumi no kawa no," refers to the Yoshino River where it flows past Natsumi, around present-day Natsumi in Yoshino Town, Nara Prefecture.
The third line, "kawayodo ni," means "in a still pool of the river."
The fourth line, "kamo zo naku naru," is a kakari-musubi construction in which "zo" is answered by "naru," the attributive form of the inferential auxiliary "nari," meaning "wild ducks are heard crying." The poem breaks after the fourth line, in inverted relation to the last line.
The last line, "yamakage ni shite," means "in the shadow of the hills." The poem sings of a quiet, secluded scene where the cries of ducks are heard from a pool in the hills' shadow. From the waterfowl poems before, which entrusted the lament of lonely sleep to the birds, it turns to a simple Man'yō poem of scenery and closes the waterfowl sequence.
- Author
- Prince Yuhara
- Source
- Shin Kokin Wakashu
- Other
-
- How vain it is! For how many nights, then, on the flowing water does it strive to write the count— the mandarin duck sleeping alone?
- Like the waterfowl, the wild ducks sleeping afloat, drifting in my sorrow, with the waves for my pillow how many nights have I slept?
- Over my bedchamber it spreads one sheltering bough— outside the house, on the broad-leaved oak I hear the hail come down
- Rippling waters— at Karasaki of Shiga the wind blows chill, and on the lofty peaks of Hira the hail must be falling