ありとても逢はぬためしのなとり川
朽ちだに果てね瀬々の埋もれ木
朽ちだに果てね瀬々の埋もれ木
- Roma-ji
-
Ari to te mo awanu tameshi no natorigawa kuchi dani hatene seze no umoregi
- English Translation
-
Though I live, I've won
a name for never meeting,
like Natori River:
at least rot away and end,
buried wood beneath the shoals.
- Meaning
- Though I live, I have become a byword for never meeting, like the Natori River; you buried wood sunk in its shoals, at least rot away and be done.
- Commentary
-
Book Twelve Love Poems II 1118
Headnote: "Composed at a poetry contest at the house of the Regent and Grand Chancellor."
This is the first of two poems on love linked to the buried wood of the Natori River. The speaker, a byword for never meeting though alive, bids himself, like the buried wood in the Natori's shoals, at least to rot away. According to the headnote, it was composed at a poetry contest at the house of the Regent and Grand Chancellor, Fujiwara no Yoshitsune.
The author is Jakuren; "Hōshi" in the original name means a monk. His lay name was Fujiwara no Sadanaga; a nephew of Fujiwara no Shunzei, he was adopted by him. He was chosen as a compiler of the Shin Kokinshū but died before its completion.
The Natori River, in Mutsu Province (Natori, Miyagi Prefecture), is a poetic place-name sung together with wood buried in its riverbed. The source poem is the anonymous Kokinshū poem, "Buried wood in the shoals of the Natori River, if it came to light, what would we do? Why did we begin to meet?"
The first line, "ari to te mo," means "even though I live."
The second line, "awanu tameshi no," means "as an example of never meeting."
In the third line, "natorigawa," "natori" holds both "na toru," to win a name as an example of never meeting, and the place-name Natori River.
The fourth line, "kuchi dani hatene," means "at least rot away and end," with "dani" marking the least of wishes and "ne" the imperative of the perfective "nu." The poem breaks after the fourth line and through inversion calls out to the "buried wood" of the last line.
The last line, "seze no umoregi," is wood sunk in the shoals here and there along the river, and the poem ends on a noun. It takes the second line of the source poem unchanged; where the source poem feared the buried wood coming to light, this poem wishes it to rot away without ever surfacing. The next poem also sings of the buried wood of the Natori River, and the two are set side by side.
- Author
- Jakuren
- Source
- Shin Kokin Wakashu
- Prev Poem
-
Suma no ama no sode ni fukikosu shiokaze no naru to wa suredo te ni mo tamarazu
- Next Poem
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Nagekazu yo ima hata onaji natorigawa seze no umoregi kuchihatenu tomo