裁ち縫はぬ衣着し人もなきものを
なに山姫の布さらすらむ
なに山姫の布さらすらむ
- Roma-ji
-
Tachinuwanu kinu kishi hito mo naki mono o nani yamahime no nuno sarasuramu
- English Translation
-
No one is left
who wore the robe uncut, unsewn,
not one remains—
why then does the mountain maid
set out her cloth to bleach?
- Meaning
- No one is left who once wore robes neither cut nor sewn, so why does the mountain goddess still spread her cloth to bleach?
- Commentary
-
Book Seventeen Miscellaneous Poems I 926
Headnote: "Composed at the foot of the falls when visiting Ryūmon"
Composed at the foot of the falls when visiting the Ryūmon Temple in Yamato. Ryūmon had legends of hermit sages, and recalling the seamless robes they wore, the poet asks why, though the sages are gone, the mountain goddess still bleaches her cloth, the waterfall. Likening the falls to cloth, she conveys the mysterious air of the legendary place.
The author, "Ise," was a daughter of Fujiwara no Tsugukage who served Empress Onshi, consort of Emperor Uda. She is one of the Thirty-Six Poetic Immortals.
First line "tachinuwanu" means neither cut nor sewn, pointing to the seamless robes of the sages.
Second line "kinu kishi hito mo" uses shi, the attributive of the past ki, pointing to the sages who wore such robes.
Third line "naki mono o" uses the adversative mono o: though they are no more.
Fourth line "nani yamahime no": nani means "why," answering ramu in the last line. Yamahime is the goddess who guards the mountain.
Fifth line "nuno sarasuramu" uses the present-conjecture ramu to wonder why she is bleaching cloth. Like poem 924 in this book, it likens the falls to cloth.
- Author
- Ise
- Source
- Kokin Wakashu
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