Tare to shi mo shiranu wakare no kanashiki wa matsura no oki o izuru funabito

English Translation

Though I cannot say
who they are, the parting's grief—
it is the sorrow
of the boatmen heading out
past Matsura to the open sea.

Meaning

Even a parting from strangers is sad—the boatmen setting out past the shores of Matsura into the open sea.

Commentary

Book Nine Parting Poems 883

Headnote: "When Prince-Priest Shukaku had poets compose fifty-poem sequences."
This is the first poem of a sequence on partings by sea. Even when one does not know who they are, the speaker says, parting from the boatmen heading out past Matsura is sad. According to the headnote, it was composed when Prince-Priest Shukaku had poets compose fifty-poem sequences.
The author was a son of Fujiwara no Tametsune, his mother was Bifukumon'in no Kaga, and he was known as a master of likeness portraits.
The scene is a boat heading out to sea, and the place is the waters off Matsura in Hizen.
The direct occasion was the fifty-poem sequence commissioned by Prince-Priest Shukaku.
Prince-Priest Shukaku was a son of Emperor Go-Shirakawa and head of Ninnaji. Matsura is a poetic place in Hizen, the coast from present-day Karatsu in Saga Prefecture to northern Nagasaki Prefecture, known as a place where ships sailed for the continent, and there is a legend that when Ōtomo no Satehiko crossed to Mimana, Matsura Sayohime waved her scarf in grief at their parting.

The first line, "tare to shi mo," means "whoever they may be," the particles "shi" and "mo" strengthening "who."
The second line, "shiranu wakare no," means "of a parting from those I do not know." It shows a parting from people who are not close.
The third line, "kanashiki wa," means "what is sad," the particle "wa" marking the topic, with the answer given in the last line.
The fourth line, "matsura no oki o," is the sea off Matsura, a poetic place in Hizen. A place name carrying the legend of Sayohime's parting has been chosen.
The last line, "izuru funabito," ends on a noun, answering that what is sad is the boatmen heading out to sea. Where the earlier poems are partings from people named in exchanges or headnotes, this poem, composed on a set topic, has no particular person and speaks of the sorrow felt even at parting from strangers. The next poem, 884, also sees off someone traveling by sea to Tsukushi, so partings by sea continue.

Author

Fujiwara no Takanobu

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other