あしたづの立てる川辺を吹く風に
寄せて返らぬ波かとぞ見る
寄せて返らぬ波かとぞ見る
- Roma-ji
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Ashitazu no tateru kawabe o fuku kaze ni yosete kaeranu nami ka to zo miru
- English Translation
-
Along the river
where the reed-cranes stand,
in the blowing wind
they seem to me as waves
that roll in and never return.
- Meaning
- On the riverbank where the cranes stand in the blowing wind, they look to me like white waves that rolled in and never drew back.
- Commentary
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Book Seventeen Miscellaneous Poems I 919
Headnote: "Composed at his command on the topic "Cranes standing on a sandbar," on the day the Retired Emperor visited the West River"
On the day Retired Emperor Uda visited the West River, that is, the Ōi River, he himself composed on the topic "Cranes standing on a sandbar." A flock of white cranes on the bank is likened to white waves blown in by the wind that never return.
The author, "the Retired Emperor," is Emperor Uda, a son of Emperor Kōkō, who after abdicating took holy orders and became a cloistered emperor. He loved poetry and held many poetry contests.
In this book, this poem and the next, 920, stand together as poems of waterside excursions connected with the retired emperor.
First line "ashitazu no" is a poetic word for cranes by reedy waters.
Second line "tateru kawabe o" works in directly the topic's "standing on a sandbar."
Third line "fuku kaze ni" leads to the motion of wind driving waves.
Fourth line "yosete kaeranu" describes cranes standing still, unlike ordinary waves that come in and draw back.
Fifth line "nami ka to zo miru" closes zo with the attributive miru, seeing the white cranes as white waves.
- Author
- Retired Emperor Uda
- Source
- Kokin Wakashu
- Prev Poem
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Ame ni yori tamino no shima o kyō yukedo na ni wa kakurenu mono ni zo arikeru
- Next Poem
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Mizu no ue ni ukaberu fune no kimi naraba koko zo tomari to iwamashi mono o