茂き野をいく一群に分けなして
さらに昔をしのびかへさん
さらに昔をしのびかへさん
- Roma-ji
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Shigeki no o iku hitomura ni wakenashite sara ni mukashi o shinobikaesan
- English Translation
-
The overgrown field
into a number of clumps
I shall part and sort,
and once again I'll call back
the days of long ago.
- Meaning
- I will part the overgrown field into clumps, and once more call back to mind the days of long ago.
- Commentary
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Book Seventeen Miscellaneous Poems II 1678
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Topic unknown."
This is the fourth poem of the sequence on old fields and villages. Dividing the overgrown field into clumps, the poet will call back to mind the past once more. The headnote gives the topic as unknown and records nothing of the circumstances.
The author, continuing from the preceding poem, is Saigyō. Named Satō Norikiyo in lay life, he was a guard in the service of Retired Emperor Toba and took holy orders at the age of twenty-three.
The first line, "shigeki no o," means "the overgrown field."
The second line, "iku hitomura ni," means "into several clumps."
The third line, "wakenashite," means "dividing it." It takes up the field marked off by boundaries in the preceding poem.
The fourth line, "sara ni mukashi o," means "the past once more."
The last line, "shinobikaesan," means "I will recall it again." It closes with the volitional "n," singing of a heart that would recall, in an overgrown field, the labors of people long ago.
- Author
- Saigyō
- Source
- Shin Kokin Wakashu
- Prev Poem
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Yamagatsu no kataoka kakete shimuru no no sakai ni tateru tama no oyanagi
- Next Poem
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Mukashi mishi niwa no komatsu ni toshi furite arashi no oto o kozue ni zo kiku