宇治間山朝風寒し旅にして
衣貸すべき妹もあらなくに
衣貸すべき妹もあらなくに
- Roma-ji
-
Ujimayama asakaze samushi tabi ni shite koromo kasu beki imo mo aranaku ni
- English Translation
-
On Ujima Hill
the morning wind blows chilling;
far away from home,
I have no dear wife with me
who would lend her robe to me.
- Meaning
- The morning wind on Mount Ujima is cold—and here on my journey there is no beloved to lend me her robe.
- Commentary
-
Book One Miscellaneous Poems 75
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Poems from the journey of the late Emperor to the Yoshino Palace"
On the road to Yoshino, the poet laments the cold morning wind on Mount Ujima, with no wife beside him to lend him her robe. Following the cold of the night storm in the preceding poem, this poem sings of the morning wind's chill and overlays it with longing for his wife on the journey. The left note names the author as Prince Nagaya.
Prince Nagaya was a grandson of Emperor Tenmu and son of Prince Takechi; his mother was Princess Minabe, a daughter of Emperor Tenji. Early in the Nara period he led the government as Minister of the Left, but in 729, the sixth year of Jinki, he was driven to suicide in the Nagaya Incident.
The first line names Mount Ujima on the road to Yoshino, thought to be near Chimata in present-day Yoshino, Nara Prefecture.
The second line, "the morning wind is cold," is followed by a break. Against the night-time chill of "the storm wind of the hills" in the preceding poem, it presents the cold of morning.
The third line, "on a journey," is the same phrase as the first line of poem 67 in this book, marking the speaker as a traveler.
The fourth line, "who would lend me a robe," brings to mind his wife as one who would lend him a robe against the cold.
In the last line, naku is a nominal form of the negative and ni a concessive with a sigh: "yet I have no wife here." Taking up the cold of the second line, it closes on the loneliness of having no wife beside him.
- Author
- Prince Nagaya
- Source
- Manyoshu
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-
Miyoshino no yama no arashi no samukeku ni hata ya koyoi mo waga hitori nemu
- Next Poem
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Masurao no tomo no oto su nari mononofu no ōmaetsukimi tate tatsu rashi mo