天の原そこともしらぬ大空に
おぼつかなさを嘆きつるかな
おぼつかなさを嘆きつるかな
- Roma-ji
-
Ama no hara soko to mo shiranu ōzora ni obotsukanasa o nagekitsuru kana
- English Translation
-
The plain of heaven,
its vast sky whose where and when
no one ever knows—
it is such uncertainty
that I have been lamenting
- Meaning
- Like the vast sky, the plain of heaven where no one can tell where anything lies, I have been lamenting how uncertain I am of you.
- Commentary
-
Book Fifteen Love Poems V 1411
Headnote: "Sent to the Priestess Consort."
This is the first poem of the sequence on sky and clouds and forms an exchange with the next poem. Unable to grasp the consort's state, like the boundless sky, he says he has been lamenting that uncertainty. According to the headnote, it was sent to the Priestess Consort, Princess Kishi.
The author, "Poem of the Tenryaku Era," is Emperor Murakami. A son of Emperor Daigo, he took the throne as the sixty-second sovereign, and his reign was praised as the Tenryaku rule. Tenryaku is the era name of his reign.
The first line, "ama no hara," refers to the wide expanse of the sky.
The second line, "soko to mo shiranu," means "where no one can tell where anything lies." It describes the boundless sky.
The third line, "ōzora ni," restates "ama no hara" of the first line, doubling it to stress the sky's vastness. From the earthly images of the preceding group, the imagery moves here to the sky.
The fourth line, "obotsukanasa o," means "the uncertainty of not knowing how you are." "Ōzora" in the third line and "obotsukanasa" echo in sound, so that the sky's elusiveness passes straight into the heart's unease.
The last line, "nagekitsuru kana," closes with the exclamatory "kana": "I have been lamenting." The consort's reply in the next poem answers by taking up these words "sky" and "lament."
- Author
- Emperor Murakami
- Source
- Shin Kokin Wakashu
- Prev Poem
-
Ume no hana ka o nomi sode ni todome okite waga omou hito wa otozure mo senu
- Next Poem
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Nagekuran kokoro o sora ni miteshigana tatsu asagiri ni mi o ya nasamashi