Hi o hetsutsu miyako shinobu no urasabite nami yori hoka no otozure mo nashi

English Translation

Day by day goes on,
and longing for the capital
at Shinobu's bay
I grow lonely; but the waves,
no one ever comes to call.

Meaning

As the days go by, my longing for the capital grows lonely as the bay of Shinobu, and nothing comes to call on me but the waves.

Commentary

Book Ten Travel Poems 971

Headnote: "Composed on the heart of travel when he held a poetry contest."
This is the third of a sequence of poems on journeys along the sea. As the days pass, longing for the capital grows ever lonelier, and at the bay of Shinobu nothing comes to call but the waves, the solitude of a traveler thinking of the capital from a distant bay. According to the headnote, it was composed on the heart of travel when he held a poetry contest.
The author, "Lay Priest Former Regent and Chancellor," is Fujiwara no Kanezane. A son of Regent Fujiwara no Tadamichi, he served as Regent, Chancellor, and Grand Minister, and later took holy orders. He was the founder of the Kujō house, also called Kujō Kanezane, and left the diary Gyokuyō.
The scene is a time when many days have passed on the road, at the bay of Shinobu in Mutsu Province.
The direct occasion is composing on the topic "the heart of travel" at a poetry contest held by the author.

The first line, "hi o hetsutsu," means "as the days go by." "Tsutsu" expresses continuation, showing the days of travel piling up.
In the second line, "miyako shinobu no," "shinobu" carries both "shinobu," to long for the capital, and Shinobu, a famous place in Mutsu Province.
In the third line, "urasabite," "ura" carries both "ura," a bay, and "ura," the heart. The loneliness of the bay of Shinobu and the loneliness of the heart are laid together in one word.
The fourth line, "nami yori hoka no," means "other than the waves." It shows that only the breaking waves come calling.
The last line, "otozure mo nashi," means "no one comes to call." Like "tofu no urakaze otosenu ni" in 930, it sings of the loneliness of no word from the capital at a bay in Mutsu. Where the preceding poem imagines waves crossing the sleeves of the one at home, this poem sings of waves alone visiting the traveler, so that the same waves are divided between the side of home and the side of the traveler.

Author

Fujiwara no Kanezane

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other