由良の門を渡る舟人梶を絶え
行方も知らぬ恋の道かも
行方も知らぬ恋の道かも
- Roma-ji
-
Yura no to o wataru funabito kaji o tae yukue mo shiranu koi no michi kamo
- English Translation
-
Crossing Yura's strait,
the boatman who has lost
his rudder, drifting:
not knowing where it will lead,
ah, such is the road of love
- Meaning
- Like a boatman crossing the strait of Yura who has lost his oar and drifts with no knowing where, such is the road of love, whose end I cannot see.
- Commentary
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Book Eleven Love Poems I 1071
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Topic unknown."
This is the first poem of a sequence on love with no known course, sung through boats. Like a boatman crossing the strait of Yura who has lost his oar and drifts, the road of love leads who knows where. The headnote gives no topic, and the circumstances of composition are not recorded.
The author, "Sone no Yoshitada," continues from the preceding poem and was a poet of the mid-Heian period. Having served as Secretary of Tango, he was called Sotan, and he is known for poems using novel words and expressions. His personal collection is the Sotanshū.
The poem was chosen by Fujiwara no Teika for the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu.
In the first line, "to" means a strait, and the strait of Yura was sung as a passage of swift tides.
The second line, "wataru funabito," means "the boatman crossing the strait."
The third line, "kaji o tae," means "having lost his oar," "kaji" being the tool for rowing a boat. The first three lines form a preface, laying a drifting boat over love whose course is unknown.
The fourth line, "yukue mo shiranu," means "not knowing where it goes."
In the last line, "kamo" is exclamatory: such is the road of love. From the summer scenes of the poems before it moves to boats at sea, and poems of boats on the sea lanes follow. 1073, Yoshitsune's poem, takes up this poem's words with "kaji o tae Yura no minato ni."
- Author
- Sone no Yoshitada
- Source
- Shin Kokin Wakashu
- Prev Poem
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Kayaribi no sayo fukegata no shitakogare kurushi ya waga mi hito shirezu nomi
- Next Poem
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Oikaze ni yae no shioji o yuku fune no honoka ni dani mo aimiteshigana