うとはまのうとくのみやは世をば経ん
波のよるよる逢ひ見てしがな
波のよるよる逢ひ見てしがな
- Roma-ji
-
Utohama no utoku nomi ya wa yo o ba hen nami no yoruyoru aimiteshigana
- English Translation
-
Like Utohama,
must I live my life estranged,
distant, always so?
As the waves come, night by night,
O that we might meet at last
- Meaning
- Like the name of Utohama beach, must I spend my life always estranged from you? As the waves roll in, night after night, I long to meet you.
- Commentary
-
Book Eleven Love Poems I 1051
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Topic unknown."
This is the fourth poem of the sequence on love that cannot meet, sung through places and things. The speaker cannot live on estranged, as the name of Utohama suggests, and longs to meet night after night as the waves roll in. The headnote gives no topic, and the circumstances of composition are not recorded.
The author, "Anonymous," indicates a poem whose author's name has not come down to us.
In the first line, Utohama is the name of a beach, and by repeated sound it leads to "utoku," estranged.
The second line, "utoku nomi ya wa," means "always estranged," and the rhetorical "ya wa" is resolved by "n" in the third line.
The third line, "yo o ba hen," means "could I live my life so? I could not," and the poem breaks here.
In the fourth line, "yoru" pivots between the waves coming in and "yoru," night, so that it means "night after night, as the waves roll in."
In the last line, "teshigana" expresses a wish: I long to meet. Where the preceding poem lamented longing that grows without meeting, this one wishes to meet night after night. 1072 and 1075 also close with the same last line, "aimiteshigana."
- Author
- Unknown Poet
- Source
- Shin Kokin Wakashu
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Mikari suru kariba no ono no narashiba no nare wa masarade koi zo masareru
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Azumaji no michi no hate naru Hitachiobi no kagoto bakari mo awan to zo omou