Obotsukana miyako ni sumanu miyakodori koto tou hito ni ikaga kotaeshi

English Translation

How I wonder now,
you who never lived there,
bird of the capital:
to the one who questioned you,
what answer could you give?

Meaning

I cannot help but wonder: capital bird, you who never lived in the capital, what answer did you give the one who asked you about those there?

Commentary

Book Ten Travel Poems 977

Headnote: "For the Poetry Contest in Fifteen Hundred Rounds."
This is the fourth of a sequence of poems of personal reflection on a journey. The speaker wonders what answer the capital bird, which never lived in the capital, could have given the one who asked it after people there, questioning an old poem. According to the headnote, it was submitted to the Poetry Contest in Fifteen Hundred Rounds.
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 journey, on a road thinking of the eastern waters where the capital bird dwells.
The direct occasion is the Poetry Contest in Fifteen Hundred Rounds held by Retired Emperor Go-Toba.
The source poem is "If you bear the name, let me ask you, capital bird: does the one I love still live or not?", included in Travel Poems of the Kokin Wakashū as a poem by Ariwara no Narihira and also found in Section 9 of The Tales of Ise. This poem asks in return how the capital bird answered that question.

The first line, "obotsukana," means "how I wonder." It is an exclamation using the stem of an adjective, and the poem breaks after the first line.
The second line, "miyako ni sumanu," means "who never lived in the capital." It shows a bird that bears the capital's name but does not know the capital.
The third line, "miyakodori," is the bird asked by Narihira at the Sumida River about someone in the capital. Following 908, the capital bird is sung of again.
The fourth line, "koto tou hito ni," means "to the one who asked." It takes up "iza koto towamu" of the source poem and points to Narihira. It shares its word with "koto toe yo" in 934.
The last line, "ikaga kotaeshi," means "what answer did you give?" The past "shi" asks for the answer to a question long ago. It turns the reasoning that a bird that never lived in the capital could hardly know of people there on the famous old question, pointing out that it could have no answer. Where 908 takes "ari ya" from the same source poem to lament the lack of word from the capital, this poem answers the source poem's question itself with a question.

Author

Gishumon-in no Tango

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other