山がつの垣ほに這へる青つづら
人はくれども言伝てもなし
人はくれども言伝てもなし
- Roma-ji
-
Yamagatsu no kakio ni haeru aotsuzura hito wa kuredomo kotozute mo nashi
- English Translation
-
Green vines that creep
along the hedge of a hut
of mountain folk:
though people come and draw them,
from you there comes no word.
- Meaning
- Like the green vines creeping along a mountain dweller's hedge that people come to gather, others come and go—but from you there is not even a message.
- Commentary
-
Book Fourteen Love Poems IV 742
Headnote: "Topic unknown"
As people draw in the green vines creeping along a mountain dweller's hedge, others come, but from the beloved not even a message arrives—so the poem laments. Making "kure" mean both drawing in vines and people coming, it conveys the forlornness of one who waits amid a lonely mountain scene.
Its opening, "yamagatsu no kakio ni," is the same phrase that begins "yamagatsu no kakio ni sakeru" in 695 of this book; the longing once entrusted there to a pink turns here into the loneliness of one who is not visited.
The author, "Chō," is said to have been a woman of the early Heian period, but her life is not well documented.
The first line, "yamagatsu no," refers to a humble mountain dweller and is the same word as the third line of 695 in this book.
The second line, "kakio ni haeru," means "creeping along the hedge," "ru" being the attributive form of the continuative "ri."
The third line, "aotsuzura," refers to green vines; up to here the lines form a preface to "kure" in the fourth line.
In the fourth line, "hito wa kuredomo," "kure" is a pivot word joining "kuru" (to draw in vines) and "kuru" (to come).
The final line, "kotozute mo nashi," means "there is not even a message," expressing the loneliness of waiting.
- Author
- Utsuku
- Source
- Kokin Wakashu
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