都出でて今日みかの原泉川
川風寒し衣かせ山
川風寒し衣かせ山
- Roma-ji
-
Miyako idete kyō mika no hara izumigawa kawakaze samushi koromo kaseyama
- English Translation
-
Leaving the capital,
today I see Mika Plain—
the Izumi River,
how cold its river wind!
Lend me a robe, Mount Kase.
- Meaning
- I left the capital and today I look out on Mika Plain. Crossing the Izumi River, the wind off the water is bitterly cold. Lend me a robe, Mount Kase!
- Commentary
-
Book Nine Travel Poems 408
Headnote: "Topic unknown"
Setting out from the capital, the poet strings together place names of southern Yamashiro, Mika Plain, the Izumi River and Mount Kase, and complains of the cold river wind. With puns hidden in the place names, the poem traces the journey and its biting chill in a light, brisk rhythm.
The way it follows the road by listing place names recalls the travel songs of older times. Mika Plain was the site of the Kuni capital in the Nara period and lay on the road linking Nara and Yamashiro.
The author is recorded as "anonymous"; the poet is unknown.
The first line, "leaving the capital," marks the starting point, and it runs to six syllables, one over the count.
The second line plays on "kyō mi" ("today I see") and the place name Mika no Hara, showing that on the very day of departure the traveler has come as far as Mika Plain.
The third line names the Izumi River, which flows through Mika Plain and is today's Kizu River; the piling up of place names depicts the journey's progress.
The fourth line picks up "river" from the line before, and the poem breaks here. The cold of the wind over the river conveys the loneliness of travel.
The last line plays on "kase" ("lend me") and the place name Mount Kase, ending on a noun. The wish for a borrowed robe against the cold is wittily entrusted to the mountain's name. Like the last line of the preceding poem, 407, "O fishing boats of the fisherfolk," it closes with an address.
- Author
- Unknown Poet
- Source
- Kokin Wakashu
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