逢ふまでのみるめ刈るべきかたぞなき
まだ波馴れぬ磯のあま人
まだ波馴れぬ磯のあま人
- Roma-ji
-
Au made no mirume karubeki kata zo naki mada naminarenu iso no amabito
- English Translation
-
Until we can meet,
there is no shore where I might reap
the seaweed, no way:
still unused to the waves, I am
a fisher on the rocky shore
- Meaning
- Until we meet, I have no shore and no way to reap that seaweed; I am like a fisher on the rocks, still unused to the waves.
- Commentary
-
Book Eleven Love Poems I 1079
Headnote: "Topic unknown."
This is the second poem of the sequence on love sung through seaweed. Until they meet, there is no way to reap the seaweed, and the speaker likens herself to a fisher not yet used to the waves. The headnote gives no topic, and the circumstances of composition are not recorded.
The author, "Sagami," was a lady-in-waiting and poet of the mid-Heian period, so called from her marriage to Ōe no Kinyori. She is one of the Later Thirty-Six Poetic Immortals.
The first line, "au made no," means "for the time until we meet."
In the second line, "mirume" pivots, as in the preceding poem, between the seaweed and the chance to see the beloved.
In the third line, "kata" pivots between "kata," the tidal flat where seaweed is reaped, and "kata," a means or way. The emphatic "zo" is resolved by "naki," and the poem breaks here.
The fourth line, "mada naminarenu," means "not yet used to the waves," laid over being new to love.
The last line, "iso no amabito," ends on a noun. Where Shunzei's preceding poem wearied of seeking the seaweed, this one sings of one who does not even know how to reap it, leading on to the next poem, which asks the fishing boat where that place may be.
- Author
- Sagami
- Source
- Shin Kokin Wakashu
- Prev Poem
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Ama no karu mirume o nami ni magaetsutsu Nagusa no hama o tazunewabinuru
- Next Poem
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Mirume karu kata ya izuku zo sao sashite ware ni oshie yo ama no tsuribune