莫囂円隣之大相七兄爪謁気我が背子が
い立たせりけむ厳橿が本
い立たせりけむ厳橿が本
- Roma-ji
-
***** ******* waga seko ga itataseri kemu itsukashi ga moto
- English Translation
-
(undeciphered)
(undeciphered)
my husband, my dear,
must have stood there once, they say,
beneath the sacred oak tree.
- Meaning
- (The first two lines resist reading and remain undeciphered.) … there, beneath the sacred oak, where my beloved is said to have once stood.
- Commentary
-
Book One Miscellaneous Poems 9
Headnote: "A poem composed by Princess Nukata when the Emperor journeyed to the hot springs of Ki"
A poem imagining the sacred oak beneath which a beloved once stood, written while attending a royal journey to the hot springs of Kii. Its first two lines are known as the most baffling passage in the entire Man'yōshū; many readings have been proposed since early times, yet none has been settled. The meaning of the whole therefore remains uncertain, but the latter half reveals a longing that overlays the image of a loved one on the holy tree. It is thought to date from the royal journey to the Ki hot springs in 658, the fourth year of Empress Saimei.
Princess Nukata is the leading woman poet of the early Man'yōshū. Said to be the daughter of Prince Kagami, she bore Princess Tōchi to Prince Ōama (later Emperor Tenmu) and afterward served Emperor Tenji. She is known for the many poems she composed at court rites and on royal journeys, often voicing the sovereign's own feelings.
The first line survives only in its original man'yōgana and cannot be read with certainty. Many readings have been proposed, beginning with the Kan'ei printed edition's yūzuki no ("the evening moon"), but none is decisive.
The second line, like the first, has no fixed reading. The Kan'ei edition reads it aogite toishi, but there is no consensus. It is because of these opening lines that this is regarded as the Man'yōshū's greatest crux.
The third line, waga seko ga, uses seko, a word a woman used for her husband or lover. From here the meaning becomes clear, placing the beloved at the center of the poem. Some take him to be Prince Ōama, others Prince Naka no Ōe.
In the fourth line, i is a prefix, tatasu the honorific of "to stand," ri the continuative, and kemu an auxiliary of hearsay or conjecture about the past: "he must have stood there, it is said." It reaches toward a past the speaker did not witness.
The last line, itsukashi ga moto, uses itsu, "sacred," to name the foot of a holy oak in which a god dwells. Ending on a noun, it overlays the beloved's image on the sacred tree and leaves a lingering resonance.
- Author
- Princess Nukata
- Source
- Manyoshu
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Nigitatsu ni funanori semu to tsuki mateba shio mo kanainu ima wa kogiide na
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Kimi ga yo mo waga yo mo shiru ya iwashiro no oka no kusane o iza musubite na