水上の空に見ゆるは白雲の
たつにまがへる布引の滝
たつにまがへる布引の滝
- Roma-ji
-
Minakami no sora ni miyuru wa shirakumo no tatsu ni magaeru nunobiki no taki
- English Translation
-
That its source appears
high up in the sky itself—
like white clouds that rise,
or cloth that is cut, it seems,
the falls of Nunobiki.
- Meaning
- That its source seems to lie in the sky is because the Nunobiki Falls look just like white clouds rising up.
- Commentary
-
Book Seventeen Miscellaneous Poems II 1652
Headnote: "When the Kyōgoku Former Chancellor went to see the Nunobiki Falls."
This is the second poem of the sequence on the Nunobiki Falls. That the source seems to lie in the sky is because the Nunobiki Falls look like rising white clouds. According to the headnote, it was composed when his father, the Kyōgoku Former Chancellor, went to see the Nunobiki Falls.
The author, "Nijō Kanpaku Naidaijin," is Fujiwara no Moromichi. A son of the Kyōgoku Former Chancellor Fujiwara no Morozane, he rose to Regent and Palace Minister.
The first line, "minakami no," means "the source of the falls."
The second line, "sora ni miyuru wa," means "seems to be in the sky." The lip of the falls is so high that water seems to pour from the sky.
The third line, "shirakumo no," means "of white clouds," likening the whiteness of the falls to clouds.
The fourth line, "tatsu ni magaeru," pivots on "tatsu," both clouds "rising" and cloth being "cut," forming associated words with the "cloth" (nuno) of the last line. "Magaeru" means "easily mistaken for."
The last line, "nunobiki no taki," ends in a noun, revealing at the close what is being likened. Where the preceding poem pitted the height of the falls against tears, here the falls are drawn as reaching the sky.
- Author
- Fujiwara no Moromichi
- Source
- Shin Kokin Wakashu
- Prev Poem
-
Waga yo o ba kyō ka asu ka to matsu kai no namida no taki to izure takaken
- Next Poem
-
Hisakata no amatsu otome ga natsugoromo kumoi ni sarasu nunobiki no taki