海の底沖つ白波竜田山
いつか越えなむ妹があたり見む
いつか越えなむ妹があたり見む
- Roma-ji
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Wata no soko okitsu shiranami tatsutayama itsu ka koenamu imo ga atari mimu
- English Translation
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From the ocean's depths
white waves rise far out at sea—
Tatsuta Hill:
when might I cross over it
and see where my darling dwells?
- Meaning
- As the white waves rise far out at sea, so rises Mount Tatsuta—when will I cross it and see the place where my beloved lives?
- Commentary
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Book One Miscellaneous Poems 83
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "A poem composed at the sacred well of Yamanobe when Prince Nagata was dispatched to the Ise Shrine Palace in the fourth month of summer, in the fifth year of Wadō, mizunoe-ne"
A poem of homesickness, longing to cross Mount Tatsuta soon and see where the wife waiting at home lives. The first two lines form a preface leading, through tatsu ("rise"), to the homophonous Tatsuta, and the skillful shift from white waves at sea to thoughts of a mountain crossing is striking. As with the preceding poem, the left note suspects an old poem recited at the time. Mount Tatsuta lies on the border of Yamato and Kawachi, not on the road back from Ise—another reason for regarding it as an older poem put to new use.
Prince Nagata was a member of the imperial family in the early Nara period whose lineage is unclear. He served as governor of Ōmi and captain of the Palace Gate Guards, among other posts, and died in 737, the ninth year of Tenpyō. If, as the left note suspects, he was reciting an older poem, the poem is not his own composition.
The first line, read wata no soko, "the depths of the sea," is a pillow word for "offing."
The second line, "white waves of the offing," refers to waves rising far out at sea. Because white waves "rise" (tatsu), the first two lines form a preface leading to the homophonous Tatsuta.
The third line names Mount Tatsuta on the border of Yamato and Kawachi, around present-day Sangō in Ikoma District, Nara. It is often sung as a mountain on the road home to Yamato.
In the fourth line, the questioning particle ka is answered by the perfective na plus the attributive of the conjectural mu in a kakari-musubi: "when shall I cross it?" The poem breaks here.
In the last line, mu expresses intent: "I will see where my wife lives." The line is hypermetric. Like "the place where you abide" in poem 78 of this book, "... ga atari" names the place where a loved one lives.
- Author
- Prince Nagata (possibly reciting an older poem)
- Source
- Manyoshu
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Urasaburu kokoro samaneshi hisakata no ame no shigure no nagarau mireba
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Aki saraba ima mo miru goto tsumagoi ni ka nakamu yama zo takanohara no ue