忘られむ時しのべとぞ浜千鳥
行方も知らぬ跡をとどむる
行方も知らぬ跡をとどむる
- Roma-ji
-
Wasuraremu toki shinobe to zo hamachidori yukue mo shiranu ato o todomuru
- English Translation
-
"When I am forgotten,
remember me by these," I say,
and like the plovers
who know not where they are bound,
I leave behind my tracks.
- Meaning
- Saying, "When I am forgotten, remember me by this," I leave behind these traces of my brush, like the footprints of the shore plovers who know not where they will go.
- Commentary
-
Book Eighteen Miscellaneous Poems II 996
Headnote: "Topic unknown"
The poet entrusts his feelings to his brushwork, left behind like the footprints of shore plovers, so that when he is forgotten, others may remember him by it. Likening plover tracks to writing is a traditional conceit of waka, based on the Chinese legend that writing was invented from birds' footprints.
It shares the words "not knowing where" with 989 in this book, showing a self with no settled course that wishes at least to leave behind the traces of its brush. Placed near the end of the book, it leads into the following poems on presenting poems to the emperor and compiling anthologies.
The author is recorded as anonymous, and the name has not come down to us.
The first line, "when I am forgotten," uses rare (passive) and mu (conjecture).
The second line, "remember me by these," can be read with an emphatic shi before the imperative shinobe; zo governs the attributive todomuru at the end.
The third line, "the plovers," refers to shore plovers, whose tracks in the sand are likened to writing.
The fourth line, "who know not where they are bound," uses the same words as the fourth line of 989 in this book.
The last line, "I leave behind my tracks," overlaps the plovers' footprints with the poet's written traces.
- Author
- Unknown Poet
- Source
- Kokin Wakashu
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