知らざりし八十瀬の波を分け過ぎて
片敷くものは伊勢の浜荻
片敷くものは伊勢の浜荻
- Roma-ji
-
Shirazarishi yasose no nami o wakesugite katashiku mono wa ise no hamaogi
- English Translation
-
Through waves I never knew,
the many shoals of the river,
I have made my way,
and what I spread to sleep alone
are the beach reeds of Ise.
- Meaning
- Having made my way through the waves of countless shoals I never knew before, what I spread to sleep alone are the beach reeds of Ise.
- Commentary
-
Book Ten Travel Poems 944
Headnote: "When she presented a hundred-poem sequence."
This is the second of a sequence of poems on the beach reeds of Ise. Having pushed through the waves of countless unfamiliar shoals, the speaker spreads beach reeds of Ise to sleep alone, a bed at the end of the journey to Ise. According to the headnote, it was composed when she presented a hundred-poem sequence.
The author, Gishūmon-in no Tango, was a lady-in-waiting and poet of the early Kamakura period. She served Ninshi, consort of Emperor Go-Toba, later known as Gishūmon-in.
The scene is a night on the journey to Ise, on the shore of Ise.
The direct occasion is the presentation of hundred-poem sequences to Retired Emperor Go-Toba.
"Yasose," "eighty shoals," refers to the many shoals of the Suzuka River on the road to Ise.
The first line, "shirazarishi," means "that I never knew." The past "shi" shows that she had never seen them before setting out.
The second line, "yasose no nami o," means "the waves of the many shoals." It shows a journey fording the many shoals of the Suzuka River on the road to Ise.
The third line, "wakesugite," means "having pushed through and passed." It connects by the word "wake" to "wakeyukeba," the third line of the next poem.
The fourth line, "katashiku mono wa," means "what I spread to sleep alone." Following "koromo katashiki" in 922 and "katashiku sode" in 929, sleeping alone is sung of again.
The last line, "ise no hamaogi," means "the beach reeds of Ise," ending on a noun. It shares the last line of the preceding poem, and the two are bound by the beach reeds of Ise. Where the preceding poem sings of nights accumulated on a bed of beach reeds, this poem sings of the river shoals crossed to reach it, seeing the same bed on different scales, the piling up of time and the length of the road.
- Author
- Gishumon-in no Tango
- Source
- Shin Kokin Wakashu
- Other
-
- On the eastern road, how I gazed deep in the night— tell them this, I pray, moonlight hanging on the hills around the capital.
- For how many nights have I gazed upon the moon, moved so deeply by it, breaking down by the waves' edge the beach reeds of Ise for my bed?
- In the raging wind, as I push through the beach reeds along Ise's shore, no robe to borrow, the geese are crying upon the waves.
- Used though to the shore, my heart still will not ease on this rush pillow; do not break so wildly here, you white waves of the water.