木にもあらず草にもあらぬ竹のよの
端にわが身はなりぬべらなり
端にわが身はなりぬべらなり
- Roma-ji
-
Ki ni mo arazu kusa ni mo aranu take no yo no hashi ni waga mi wa narinu beranari
- English Translation
-
Neither a tree,
nor yet a blade of grass,
at the bamboo's joint,
at the very edge of things,
it seems I have come to be.
- Meaning
- Like bamboo, which is neither tree nor grass, I seem to have become something at the very edge of a joint, belonging nowhere in this world.
- Commentary
-
Book Eighteen Miscellaneous Poems II 959
Headnote: "Topic unknown"
Comparing herself to bamboo, which is neither tree nor grass, the poet laments a self with no place to belong. Overlapping the yo, "section," of bamboo with yo, "world," it expresses the state of one pushed to the edge of the world.
A left note says, "Someone says this is a poem by Princess Kōzu," preserving a tradition that she composed it. She is said to have become a consort of Emperor Saga and later been deprived of that rank, and with that in mind, the lament of one caught in between fits her circumstances well.
Following the two previous poems, it also takes bamboo as its subject, so three bamboo poems stand in a row.
The author is recorded as anonymous. Princess Kōzu, named in the left note, was a daughter of Emperor Kanmu.
The first line, "neither a tree," begins the comparison.
The second line, "nor yet a blade of grass," pairs with the first, showing that bamboo belongs to neither.
The third line, "at the bamboo's joint," contains the pivot word yo, the "section" of bamboo and "world."
The fourth line, "at the very edge of things," overlaps the end of a bamboo section with the margins of the world.
The last line, "it seems I have come to be," uses beranari, a conjectural expression of the early Heian period. It is the same closing line as 989 in this book.
- Author
- Unknown Poet
- Source
- Kokin Wakashu
- Prev Poem
-
Yo ni fureba koto no ha shigeki kuretake no uki fushi goto ni uguisu zo naku
- Next Poem
-
Waga mi kara uki yo no naka to nazuketsutsu hito no tame sae kanashikaruramu