秋されば狩人越ゆる立田山
立ちても居ても物をしぞ思ふ
立ちても居ても物をしぞ思ふ
- Roma-ji
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Aki sareba karibito koyuru tatsutayama tachite mo ite mo mono o shi zo omou
- English Translation
-
When autumn comes round,
crossing over Tatsuta,
mountain of hunters—
standing up or sitting down,
still I am lost in longing.
- Meaning
- When autumn comes, hunters cross Mount Tatsuta—and, as its name says, standing or sitting, I am lost in brooding.
- Commentary
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Book Seventeen Miscellaneous Poems II 1688
Headnote: none in the original.
This is the first poem of the closing sequence of old poems. Like the name of Mount Tatsuta, crossed by hunters when autumn comes, the poet is lost in brooding whether standing or sitting. The original gives no headnote and records nothing of the circumstances.
The author, "Hitomaro," is Kakinomoto no Hitomaro. A poet who served in the reigns of Empress Jitō and Emperor Monmu, he was revered by later ages as the Saint of Poetry.
A similar poem is found in the Man'yōshū. Mount Tatsuta stands on the border of Yamato and Kawachi provinces and is famed for its autumn leaves.
The first line, "aki sareba," means "when autumn comes." "Saru" means for a season to arrive.
The second line, "karibito koyuru," means "which the hunters cross."
The third line, "tatsutayama," is Mount Tatsuta in Yamato. The first three lines form an introductory phrase leading to "tachi," "stand," by the same sound.
The fourth line, "tachite mo ite mo," means "standing or sitting." Taking up the sound of "Tatsuta" in the third line, it means "always, whatever I do."
The last line, "mono o shi zo omou," means "I am lost in brooding." "Shi" is an emphatic particle, and the particle "zo" is closed by the attributive form "omou." Following the grief of the mountain folk in the preceding poem, it sings of single-minded brooding in the cadence of an old poem.
- Author
- Kakinomoto no Hitomaro
- Source
- Shin Kokin Wakashu
- Prev Poem
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Nageki koru mi wa yama nagara sugusekashi ukiyo no naka ni nani kaeruran
- Next Poem
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Asakura ya ki no marodono ni waga oreba nanori o shitsutsu yuku wa ta ga ko zo