我が背子を大和へ遣るとさ夜更けて
暁露に我れ立ち濡れし
暁露に我れ立ち濡れし
- Roma-ji
-
Waga seko o yamato e yaru to sayo fukete akatokitsuyu ni ware tachi nureshi
- English Translation
-
To send my dear one
back again to Yamato,
deep into the night
I stood there in the dawn dew
until I was soaked through.
- Meaning
- Seeing my dear brother off back to Yamato, I stood as the night grew late until I was drenched in the dew before dawn.
- Commentary
-
Book Two Love Poems 105
Headnote: "Two poems composed by Princess Ōku when Prince Ōtsu secretly went down to the Ise Shrine and came back up to the capital"
The poem conveys the feelings of a sister who sees off her younger brother, Prince Ōtsu, after his secret visit to Ise, standing drenched with dew from deep night until dawn.
A section heading reads "the reign of the Sovereign who ruled from the Fujiwara Palace," placing the poem in the time of Empress Jitō. After Emperor Tenmu's death, Prince Ōtsu was ordered to take his own life on a charge of treason, and this trip to Ise is thought to have come just before. The sister's foreboding as she sends him off is contained in the image of her standing on and on in the soaking dew.
The author, Princess Ōku, was a daughter of Emperor Tenmu and the full elder sister of Prince Ōtsu. She served as the high priestess of the Ise Shrine.
In the first line, "waga seko o," seko is a word a woman uses for a man dear to her, here her brother Prince Ōtsu.
The second line, "yamato e yaru to," means "to send him back to Yamato," carrying the pain of sending him toward a capital where danger awaited.
In the third line, "sayo fukete," sa is a prefix: as the night grew deep.
The fourth line, "akatokitsuyu ni," is the dew before dawn, marking how long she stood from late night until daybreak.
In the final line, "ware tachi nureshi," shi is the attributive form of the past auxiliary ki, closing with deep feeling. The same phrase appears as "ware tachi nurenu" in 107 by Prince Ōtsu in this book: the sister soaked in dew as she sees him off and the prince soaked in mountain drips as he waits for his lover form a pair of the one who sends and the one who waits.
- Author
- Princess Ōku
- Source
- Manyoshu
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