山隠す春の霞ぞ恨めしき
いづれ都の境なるらむ
いづれ都の境なるらむ
- Roma-ji
-
Yama kakusu haru no kasumi zo urameshiki izure miyako no sakai naru ramu
- English Translation
-
Hiding the mountains,
the haze of spring, how bitter
I find it to be—
which of them is it that marks
the border of the capital?
- Meaning
- How I resent the spring haze that hides the mountains from me. Which of those hills, I wonder, marks the border of the capital?
- Commentary
-
Book Nine Travel Poems 413
Headnote: "Composed on the road while coming up to the capital from the eastern provinces"
On the way home from the east, the poet finds the hills veiled in spring haze and cannot tell where the border of the capital lies. The eagerness to arrive soon is voiced as resentment of the haze that hides the view.
The headnote shows that the poem was made on the road up to the capital. The hope that beyond the border hills lies the capital's own land becomes a question about a border that cannot be seen.
The author, "Oto," is Oto. She is thought to be a woman, but nothing more is known of her.
The first line, "hiding the mountains," describes the haze covering the hills.
In the second line, "zo" is a binding particle that pairs with the attributive "urameshiki" in the third line.
The poem breaks at the third line, "how bitter." Resenting the haze, a set image of travel, shows how strongly the poet longs to be home. Following the preceding poem, 412, about geese flying home to the north, this too is a poem of the road home, and poems of return are set together.
In the fourth line, "izure" is interrogative, asking which is the capital's side.
In the last line, "ramu" is the auxiliary of present conjecture, expressing the poet's wondering about a border she cannot see.
- Author
- Oto
- Source
- Kokin Wakashu
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