大御田のうるおふばかりせきかけて
井堰に落とせ川上の神
井堰に落とせ川上の神
- Roma-ji
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Ōmita no uruou bakari sekikakete iseki ni otose kawakami no kami
- English Translation
-
The honored rice fields—
enough to give them water,
dam the stream and send
it down into the weirs,
O god of the upper river.
- Meaning
- O god of the upper river, dam the waters and let them fall into the weirs, enough to soak the honored rice fields.
- Commentary
-
Book Nineteen Poems on the Gods 1893
Headnote: "Composed when the shrine priests went to Kibune to pray for rain."
This is the sixth poem in the sequence on the Kamo Shrines. It asks the god of the upper river to dam the waters and let them fall into the weirs, enough to soak the honored fields. According to the headnote, it was composed when the priests of the Kamo Shrines went to Kibune to pray for rain. For fields suffering in drought, it seeks the blessing of water from the water god.
The author, Kamo no Yukihira, was a priest who served at the Kamo Shrines.
Kibune is the Kibune Shrine on the upper reaches of the Kamo River, where prayers for rain, and for rain to stop, were offered to the god who governs water.
The first line, "ōmita no," is an honorific term for rice fields.
The second line, "uruou bakari," means "enough to soak them."
The third line, "sekikakete," means "damming the water and channeling it."
The fourth line, "iseki ni otose," means "let it fall into the weirs," calling on the god in the imperative, and the poem breaks here.
The last line, "kawakami no kami," is an address to the god of Kibune dwelling on the upper Kamo River, ending on a noun. In an inversion, the one addressed is placed last. From the festivals of Kamo in the preceding poems, it moves to a prayer to the water god by a priest of the same Kamo Shrines.
- Author
- Kamo no Yukihira
- Source
- Shin Kokin Wakashu
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Ato tareshi kami ni aoi no nakariseba nani ni tanomi o kakete sugimashi
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Ishikawa no Semi no Ogawa no kiyokereba tsuki mo nagare o tazunete zo sumu