み熊野の浦よりをちに漕ぐ舟の
我をばよそに隔てつるかな
我をばよそに隔てつるかな
- Roma-ji
-
Mikumano no ura yori ochi ni kogu fune no ware o ba yoso ni hedatetsuru kana
- English Translation
-
Like a boat that rows
from the bay of fair Kumano
out to distant seas,
you have set me far apart,
keeping me a stranger there
- Meaning
- Like a boat rowing away from the bay of Kumano out to the far sea, you have set me apart and left me at a distance.
- Commentary
-
Book Eleven Love Poems I 1048
Headnote: "Topic unknown."
This is the first poem of a sequence on love that cannot meet, sung through places and things. Like a boat rowing out from the bay of Kumano to the distant sea, the beloved has set the speaker far apart. The headnote gives no topic, and the circumstances of composition are not recorded.
The author, "Ise," was a daughter of Fujiwara no Tsugukage, and was called Ise because her father was Governor of Ise. She served Empress Onshi, consort of Emperor Uda, won the emperor's favor, and bore him a son. She is one of the Thirty-Six Poetic Immortals.
In the first line, "mi" is an honorific prefix, and Kumano is the southern part of Kii, home of the three Kumano shrines.
The second line, "ura yori ochi ni," means "from the bay out to the distance," "ochi" meaning a far-off place.
The third line, "kogu fune no," means "of a boat rowing away," and the first three lines form a preface, laying a receding boat over a beloved who draws away.
The fourth line, "ware o ba yoso ni," means "me, far apart," using "yoso," the word that has run since the opening poem of the book.
The last line, "hedatetsuru kana," means "you have set me apart," closing with the exclamatory "kana." The next poem is also by Ise, and through the reeds of Naniwa Bay it reproaches the beloved for telling her to live without meeting.
- Author
- Ise
- Source
- Shin Kokin Wakashu
- Prev Poem
-
Kokoro nomi sora ni naritsutsu hototogisu hitodanome naru ne koso nakarure
- Next Poem
-
Naniwagata mijikaki ashi no fushi no ma mo awade kono yo o sugushite yo to ya