熊野川下す早瀬のみなれ棹
さすがみなれぬ波の通ひ路
さすがみなれぬ波の通ひ路
- Roma-ji
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Kumanogawa kudasu hayase no minarezao sasuga minarenu nami no kayoiji
- English Translation
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Down Kumano River
through the rapids we descend,
the water-worn pole
thrusts in, yet the waves' pathway
is one my eyes have never known.
- Meaning
- Down the rapids of the Kumano River, the boatmen thrust the water-worn pole, yet this pathway over the waves is one I have never seen before.
- Commentary
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Book Nineteen Poems on the Gods 1908
Headnote: "Composed on the Kumano River when going to worship at Shingū."
This is the third poem in the sequence on Kumano. Though the boat descending the rapids of the Kumano River is poled with a water-worn pole, the pathway over the waves is one the poet has never seen before. According to the headnote, it was composed on the Kumano River when going down by boat to worship at Shingū. The novelty and tension of the boat journey down the rapids are expressed through a play on repeated sounds.
No author is named in the original, and the poem is treated as continuing from the author of the preceding poem, Retired Emperor Go-Toba.
The Kumano River flows from Hongū to Shingū, and pilgrims went down it by boat from Hongū to Shingū.
The first line, "Kumanogawa," is the river flowing from Hongū to Shingū.
The second line, "kudasu hayase no," means "of the swift rapids down which the boat is sent."
The third line, "minarezao," means "a pole long used to the water." It repeats the sound of "minarenu" in the fourth line so that they echo.
In the fourth line, "sasuga minarenu," "sasuga" is a pivot word joining "sasu," "to thrust" the pole, and "sasuga," "even so." "Minarenu" means "unfamiliar to the eye." The water-worn pole and the unfamiliar waves are contrasted through the same sound.
The last line, "nami no kayoiji," is the pathway over the waves where boats come and go, ending on a noun. From the steep mountain paths of the preceding poem, it moves to a pilgrimage by boat down the river.
- Author
- Go-Toba In
- Source
- Shin Kokin Wakashu
- Prev Poem
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Iwa ni musu koke fuminarasu Mikumano no yama no kai aru yukusue mogana
- Next Poem
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Tachinoboru Shioya no kemuri urakaze ni nabiku o kami no kokoro tomogana