都にて越路の空を眺めつつ
雲居といひしほどに来にけり
雲居といひしほどに来にけり
- Roma-ji
-
Miyako nite koshiji no sora o nagametsutsu kumoi to iishi hodo ni ki ni keri
- English Translation
-
While in the capital
I would gaze toward the skies
above the Koshi road,
and now I have come as far
as the clouds of which I spoke.
- Meaning
- In the capital I used to gaze at the sky above the road to Koshi, calling it the land beyond the clouds; now I have come all that way myself.
- Commentary
-
Book Ten Travel Poems 914
Headnote: "Topic unknown."
This is the first of a sequence of poems on distant journeys and travel by water. Once, in the capital, the speaker gazed at the sky toward Koshi and called it the land beyond the clouds; now she has come that far herself, feeling the distance of the journey. The headnote gives no topic, and the circumstances of composition are not recorded.
The author, Mikata no Senji, was a lady-in-waiting of the mid-Heian period. "Senji" is a name for a lady-in-waiting who served in conveying imperial commands.
The scene is a journey along the Koshi road, on the Hokurikudō leading to the northern provinces.
The direct occasion is not recorded.
The first line, "miyako nite," means "while in the capital." It looks back on days in the capital before the journey.
The second line, "koshiji no sora o," means "the sky toward the provinces of Koshi." Koshiji is sung of as the road to the far northern lands.
The third line, "nagametsutsu," means "gazing again and again." "Tsutsu" marks repeated action, showing that she often looked toward the distant sky from the capital.
The fourth line, "kumoi to iishi," means "which I called beyond the clouds." The past "shi" recalls words spoken in the capital. Where 907 imagines the cloud-veiled land as a future with "mienu kumoi ni yo o ya tsukusan," here the speaker has actually arrived in that land beyond the clouds.
The last line, "hodo ni ki ni keri," means "I have come so far." The realizing "keri" conveys the feeling of knowing the distance in her own body. Where 901 looks back on far-off Tsukushi after returning to the capital, this poem reaches the far land once imagined from the capital, exchanging the positions of capital and distant land. It is also linked to "hodo mo shirarezu" in the next poem by the word "hodo."
- Author
- Mikata no Senji
- Source
- Shin Kokin Wakashu
- Other
-
- Those from my old home who came into my dreams sleeping on the road— might they bear a grudge toward me, since I have not written again?
- Standing all night long, I have seen this evening end; at Sonohara, though they call the hut a place to lie, the name was of no use at all.
- My traveling robe is cut out for the sea road, so far is the way, who knows, like the white clouds, when— I cannot tell the time at all.
- Aboard the boat still, for tonight, just this once, I will sleep as travelers do, though the waves of Shikitsu may wake me from my dreams.