かかる瀬もありけるものを宇治川の
絶えぬばかりも嘆きけるかな
絶えぬばかりも嘆きけるかな
- Roma-ji
-
Kakaru se mo arikeru mono o ujigawa no taenu bakari mo nagekikeru kana
- English Translation
-
Such a shoal as this
there was all the while, and yet
like the Uji River
as though my flow would run dry,
how deeply I lamented.
- Meaning
- There was such a shoal of joy as this, and yet I grieved as though my stream, like the Uji River, would run dry.
- Commentary
-
Book Seventeen Miscellaneous Poems II 1648
Headnote: "Presented to the emperor on becoming Minister of the Right the year after I had grieved at losing the post of Major Captain in winter."
This is the second poem of the sequence lamenting one's lot by way of rivers. There was such a shoal of joy as this, yet the poet grieved as though the Uji River would run dry. According to the headnote, having grieved at losing the post of Major Captain in winter, he presented it to the emperor on becoming Minister of the Right the following year.
The author, "Higashi Sanjō Nyūdō Saki no Sesshō Daijō-daijin," is Fujiwara no Kaneie. A son of Minister of the Right Fujiwara no Morosuke and the father of Michinaga, he rose to Regent and Chancellor.
At odds with his elder brother Kanemichi, Kaneie was removed from the post of Major Captain of the Right, but after Kanemichi's death he was appointed Minister of the Right the following year. The next poem, 1649, is Emperor En'yū's reply.
The first line, "kakaru se mo," means "such a shoal as this." "Se" layers the shoal of a river with the sense of an occasion of joy.
The second line, "arikeru mono o," means "there was, and yet." "Mono o" expresses an adversative exclamation.
The third line, "ujigawa no," means "of the Uji River." Following the Saho River of the preceding poem, it sings of the rise and fall of one's lot by way of a river.
The fourth line, "taenu bakari mo," means "as though it would run dry." The drying up of the river is overlaid with the ending of his house's fortunes.
The last line, "nagekikeru kana," means "how I lamented." Closing with the past "keri" and the exclamation "kana," it looks back on his former grief from the promotion he now enjoys. Where the preceding poem lamented a sunken self, here the joy of rising again is sung.
- Author
- Fujiwara no Kaneie
- Source
- Shin Kokin Wakashu
- Prev Poem
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Sahogawa no nagare hisashiki mi naredomo ukise ni aite shizuminuru kana
- Next Poem
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Mukashi yori taesenu kawa no sue nareba yodomu bakari o nani nagekuran