風吹けばとはに波越す磯なれや
我が衣手の乾く時なき
我が衣手の乾く時なき
- Roma-ji
-
Kaze fukeba towa ni nami kosu iso nare ya waga koromode no kawaku toki naki
- English Translation
-
When the wind blows,
is it the shore where the waves
forever break?
These sleeves of mine, they never
know a moment to be dry
- Meaning
- Are my sleeves a rocky shore where the waves break over forever when the wind blows? They never have a moment to dry.
- Commentary
-
Book Eleven Love Poems I 1040
Headnote: "Topic unknown."
This is the first poem of a sequence on sleeves wet with tears sung through seashore scenes. Is my sleeve a shore where the waves forever break when the wind blows, the speaker asks, since it is never dry; so he sings of love's unending tears. The headnote gives no topic, and the circumstances of composition are not recorded.
The author, "Tsurayuki," was a son of Ki no Mochiyuki and one of the compilers of the Kokin Wakashū. He wrote its Kana Preface and composed The Tosa Diary.
The first line, "kaze fukeba," means "when the wind blows."
In the second line, "towa ni" means "forever," picturing waves breaking over ceaselessly.
The third line, "iso nare ya," means "is it because it is a rocky shore?" likening the sleeve to a shore swept by waves.
In the fourth line, "koromode" means the sleeve.
The last line, "kawaku toki naki," ends in the attributive form in answer to "ya" in the third line. The shore ceaselessly drenched by waves is laid over a sleeve never dry of tears. The next poem, by Michinobu, also sings of the wave-drenched robe of the fisherfolk of Suma, so two poems of tear-wet sleeves sung through seashore scenes follow each other.
- Author
- Ki no Tsurayuki
- Source
- Shin Kokin Wakashu
- Prev Poem
-
Ame mo koso wa tanomaba morame tanomazu wa omowanu hito to mite o yaminan
- Next Poem
-
Suma no ama no namikakegoromo yoso ni nomi kiku wa waga mi ni narinikeru kana