Yukusue wa ima ikuyo to ka iwashiro no oka no kayane ni makura musuban

English Translation

How much further on,
how many more nights, who can say?
At Iwashiro,
among the roots of hillside grass,
I will bind my pillow now.

Meaning

How many more nights remain on this journey, who can say? At Iwashiro, among the roots of the grasses on the hill, I will bind my pillow.

Commentary

Book Ten Travel Poems 947

Headnote: "When she presented a hundred-poem sequence."
This is the second of a sequence of poems on the traveler's pillow. Unable to say how many more nights the journey will last, the speaker binds a pillow of grass at the roots of the hillside grasses of Iwashiro, a night on a road whose end cannot be seen. According to the headnote, it was composed when she presented a hundred-poem sequence.
The author, Princess Shokushi, was a daughter of Emperor Go-Shirakawa. She served as Kamo Priestess.
The scene is a night on a journey, on the hill of Iwashiro in Kii Province.
The direct occasion is the presentation of hundred-poem sequences to Retired Emperor Go-Toba.
The source poem is by Princess Nakatsusumera in Book One of the Man'yōshū: "Does it know your life and mine? Come, let us bind the grass roots on the hill of Iwashiro," a poem praying for long life by binding the grasses of the hill of Iwashiro. This poem takes the words "the hill of Iwashiro" and "binding" grass, and makes it a poem of binding a traveler's pillow.

The first line, "yukusue wa," means "as for the road ahead." It thinks of the journey still to come.
The second line, "ima ikuyo to ka," means "how many more nights?" The particle "ka" poses a question, answered by "n" in the attributive form in the last line. Where "ikuyo ka wa" in 943 counts the nights already passed, here the nights still to come are counted.
In the third line, "iwashiro no," "iwa" carries both "iwa," "to say," and Iwashiro, a famous place in Kii Province. Iwashiro is sung of as a place where travelers bound grasses or pine branches to pray for a safe journey.
The fourth line, "oka no kayane ni," means "at the roots of the grasses on the hill." It takes up "oka no kusane" of the source poem.
The last line, "makura musuban," means "I will bind a pillow." Where the source poem binds grass in prayer for life, this poem binds grass as a pillow for the night, filled with the uncertainty of a journey whose end is unknown. The headnote of 923 also tells of binding grass to make a pillow on the road.

Author

Princess Shokushi

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other