さすらふる身は定めたる方もなし
うきたる舟の波にまかせて
うきたる舟の波にまかせて
- Roma-ji
-
Sasurauru mi wa sadametaru kata mo nashi ukitaru fune no nami ni makasete
- English Translation
-
For one who wanders
there is no settled place
to which the path leads;
like a boat adrift, I leave
my sorrows to the waves.
- Meaning
- For one who wanders there is no fixed destination; like a boat afloat, I leave myself, in my sorrow, to the waves.
- Commentary
-
Book Eighteen Miscellaneous Poems III 1705
Headnote: "Topic unknown."
Following the poems on fisherfolk, this is the first of the poems that use a boat to speak of life's uncertainty. A wanderer has no fixed destination and drifts like a boat left to the waves. The boat is made a figure for his own life with nowhere to rest. The headnote gives no topic, and the circumstances of composition are not recorded.
The author, "Former Middle Counselor Masafusa," is Ōe no Masafusa. The son of Ōe no Narihira, he was a renowned scholar who served three emperors, Go-Sanjō, Shirakawa, and Horikawa, and rose to Provisional Middle Counselor.
The first line, "sasurauru," means "wandering without aim," the attributive form of "sasurau" modifying "self."
The second line, "mi wa sadametaru," means "for me, a settled," and runs on to the third line.
The third line, "kata mo nashi," means "there is no direction to go, nowhere to rest." It ends firmly in the conclusive form, and the poem pauses here.
In the fourth line, "ukitaru fune no," "uki" is a pivot word meaning both "floating" and "sorrowful." Taking up the fisher's boat of the preceding poem, the boat becomes a figure for a life with nowhere to rest.
The last line, "nami ni makasete," means "leaving it to the waves." Through inversion, the image of the boat fills out the picture of an unsettled life.
- Author
- Oe no Masafusa
- Source
- Shin Kokin Wakashu
- Prev Poem
-
Fune no uchi nami no ue ni zo oinikeru ama no shiwaza mo itoma na no yo ya
- Next Poem
-
Ika ni semu mi o ukifune no ni o omomi tsui no tomari ya izuko naru ramu