葦辺より満ち来る潮のいや増しに
思ふか君を忘れかねつる
思ふか君を忘れかねつる
- Roma-ji
-
Ashibe yori michikuru shio no iyamashi ni omou ka kimi o wasure kanetsuru
- English Translation
-
From the reedy shore
the tide keeps coming in, rising
ever more and more—
is it that my longing grows,
that I cannot forget you?
- Meaning
- Like the tide rising from the reedy shore, is it because my longing grows ever greater that I cannot forget you?
- Commentary
-
Book Fifteen Love Poems V 1378
Headnote: "Sent to Middle Counselor Yakamochi."
This is the fourth poem of the sequence on sleeves and waters. Like the tide rising from the reedy shore, the speaker's longing grows, and so perhaps she cannot forget him. According to the headnote, it was sent to Middle Counselor Ōtomo no Yakamochi.
The author, "Princess Yamaguchi," was a woman poet of the Nara period. She is known to have sent poems to Ōtomo no Yakamochi; her lineage is not clear.
The poem appears in Book Four of the Man'yōshū as one sent by Princess Yamaguchi to Ōtomo no Yakamochi. Yakamochi, son of Ōtomo no Tabito, rose to Middle Counselor.
The first line, "ashibe yori," means "from the reedy shore."
The second line, "michikuru shio no," takes up "shio ya mitsuran" of the preceding poem. Following that poem's tide beneath the pillow, here the tide actually comes in.
The third line, "iyamashi ni," means "more and more." The first two lines form a preface leading from the gradually rising tide to "iyamashi."
In the fourth line, "omou ka kimi o," "ka" is a questioning particle: "is it because I long?"
The last line, "wasure kanetsuru," closes the kakari-musubi of "ka" with the attributive "tsuru": "I am unable to forget."
- Author
- Princess Yamaguchi
- Source
- Shin Kokin Wakashu
- Prev Poem
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Uramitsutsu nuru yo no sode no kawakanu wa makura no shita ni shio ya mitsuran
- Next Poem
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Shiogama no mae ni ukitaru Ukishima no ukite omoi no aru yo narikeri