あしひきの山下たぎつ岩波の
心砕けて人ぞ恋しき
心砕けて人ぞ恋しき
- Roma-ji
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Ashihiki no yamashita tagitsu iwanami no kokoro kudakete hito zo koishiki
- English Translation
-
Foot-wearying
mountains, where below the streams
rage against the rocks:
so my heart is dashed to pieces,
so I long for you, my love
- Meaning
- Like the waves that dash against the rocks as the stream rushes at the foot of the mountains, my heart is broken into pieces, and I long for you.
- Commentary
-
Book Eleven Love Poems I 1067
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Topic unknown."
This is the first poem of a sequence on love sung through mountains and summer fields. Like the waves that shatter on the rocks where the stream rushes below the mountains, the heart breaks apart in longing. 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, "ashihiki no," is a pillow word for "mountain."
The second line, "yamashita tagitsu," means "rushing at the foot of the mountains."
In the third line, "iwanami" are waves breaking against rocks, and the first three lines form a preface leading to "kudake."
The fourth line, "kokoro kudakete," means "my heart shattered, torn with longing."
In the last line, the emphatic "zo" is resolved by "koishiki." Like "yamashitamizu no waki ya kaeran" in 1015, Masahira's poem, it lays love over water flowing at the mountain's foot. From the ocean waves of the poems before it moves to a mountain stream, and the next poem, also by Tsurayuki, opens with the same words, "ashihiki no yamashita."
- Author
- Ki no Tsurayuki
- Source
- Shin Kokin Wakashu
- Prev Poem
-
Aru kai mo nagisa ni yosuru shiranami no ma naku monoomou waga mi narikeri
- Next Poem
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Ashihiki no yamashita shigeki natsukusa no fukaku mo kimi o omou koro kana