瀬をせけば淵となりても淀みけり
別れを止むるしがらみぞなき
別れを止むるしがらみぞなき
- Roma-ji
-
Se o sekeba fuchi to narite mo yodomikeri wakare o todomuru shigarami zo naki
- English Translation
-
Dam the shallow stream
and though it turns to deep pools
still the water stays;
but for parting such as this
there is no weir to hold it back.
- Meaning
- If you dam a shallow stream, the water will pool and linger, even as it turns to a deep pool. But there is no weir that can hold back the parting of death.
- Commentary
-
Book Sixteen Poems of Lament 836
Headnote: "Composed when his elder sister passed away"
This poem was composed when the poet's elder sister died. A river dammed will pool and stand still, but there is no weir anywhere to stop the parting of death. Through the image of flowing water, it expresses the grief of a parting that cannot be held back.
The book's opening poem, 829, also mourns a sister and wishes to draw the dead back by the river's waters, so both poems grieve a sibling through the image of a river.
The author, Mibu no Tadamine, was one of the compilers of the Kokinshū and one of the Thirty-Six Immortals of Poetry.
The first line, "if you dam the shallows," repeats the sounds se and se, giving a pleasing rhythm.
The second line, "though it becomes a pool," means "even when the flow is stopped and becomes a deep pool."
The third line, "it lingers," ends with keri expressing realization, and the poem breaks here. "Shallows," "pool," and "linger" are associated words connected with the river.
The fourth line, "to hold back parting," refers to stopping the parting of death.
The last line, "there is no weir," names the shigarami, stakes interwoven with branches to dam a stream. It closes in the attributive naki after zo.
- Author
- Mibu no Tadamine
- Source
- Kokin Wakashu
- Prev Poem
-
Nuru ga uchi ni miru o nomi ya wa yume to iwamu hakanaki yo o mo utsutsu to wa mizu
- Next Poem
-
Sakidatanu kui no yachitabi kanashiki wa nagaruru mizu no kaerikonu nari