あしひきの山下茂き夏草の
深くも君を思ふころかな
深くも君を思ふころかな
- Roma-ji
-
Ashihiki no yamashita shigeki natsukusa no fukaku mo kimi o omou koro kana
- English Translation
-
Foot-wearying
mountains, thick about their base
the summer grasses:
just so deeply I think of you,
these days, ah, how deeply
- Meaning
- As the summer grasses grow thick and deep at the foot of the mountains, so deeply do I think of you these days.
- Commentary
-
Book Eleven Love Poems I 1068
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Topic unknown."
This is the second poem of the sequence on love sung through mountains and summer fields. As the summer grasses grow deep at the foot of the mountains, so deeply does the speaker long for the beloved these days. The headnote gives no topic, and the circumstances of composition are not recorded.
The author, "Tsurayuki," continues from the preceding poem and 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 same first line as the preceding poem.
The second line, "yamashita shigeki," means "growing thick at the mountain's foot," using the same "yamashita" as the preceding poem.
The third line, "natsukusa no," means "of the summer grasses growing deep," and the first three lines form a preface leading to "fukaku."
The fourth line, "fukaku mo kimi o," means "you, so deeply."
The last line, "omou koro kana," is the same last line as in 1021, Kentoku-kō's poem. Against the violently breaking waves of the preceding poem, this one uses quietly deep summer grass, drawing the same mountain foot in another guise, so a violent love and a deep love are set side by side. The next poem, by Korenori, also sings of the grasses of summer fields.
- Author
- Ki no Tsurayuki
- Source
- Shin Kokin Wakashu
- Prev Poem
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Ashihiki no yamashita tagitsu iwanami no kokoro kudakete hito zo koishiki
- Next Poem
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Oshika fusu natsuno no kusa no michi o nami shigeki koiji ni madou koro kana