春の日のながらの浜に舟とめて
いづれか橋と問へど答へぬ
いづれか橋と問へど答へぬ
- Roma-ji
-
Haru no hi no nagara no hama ni fune tomete izure ka hashi to toedo kotaenu
- English Translation
-
On a long spring day,
at the Nagara shore
I moor my boat—
"Which one here is the bridge?" I ask,
but there is no answer.
- Meaning
- Mooring my boat at the Nagara shore on a long spring day, I ask which is the bridge, but no one answers.
- Commentary
-
Book Seventeen Miscellaneous Poems II 1595
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Composed on the Nagara Bridge."
This is the second poem of the sequence on the Nagara Bridge. Mooring his boat at the Nagara shore on a long spring day, the poet asks which is the bridge, but no one answers. According to the headnote, the poem was composed with the Nagara Bridge as its topic.
The author, "Egyō Hōshi," was a poet-monk of the mid-Heian period and one of the Thirty-Six Later Poetic Immortals.
The first line, "haru no hi no," leads into the following "nagara" through the length of the spring day.
The second line, "nagara no hama ni," pivots on "nagara," "long" as the spring day, and the place name Nagara. Following "mukashi nagara no" in the preceding poem, the same wordplay on "nagara" is used.
The third line, "fune tomete," means "mooring my boat," showing that the poet has come to the Nagara shore by boat.
The fourth line, "izure ka hashi to," means "which is the bridge." "Ka" poses a question. In the preceding poem the pillars remained though decaying; here even the bridge's location is unknown.
The last line, "toedo kotaenu," means "I ask, but no one answers." It ends in "nu," the attributive form of the negative auxiliary "zu," leaving as an overtone the loneliness of a place where no one knows even the remains of the bridge.
- Author
- Egyō
- Source
- Shin Kokin Wakashu
- Prev Poem
-
Toshi fureba kuchi koso masare hashibashira mukashi nagara no na dani kawarade
- Next Poem
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Kuchinikeru nagara no hashi o kite mireba ashi no kareha ni akikaze zo fuku