石見の海打歌の山の木の間より
我が振る袖を妹見つらむか
我が振る袖を妹見つらむか
- Roma-ji
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Iwami no umi utsuta no yama no ko no ma yori waga furu sode o imo mitsuramu ka
- English Translation
-
By Iwami's sea,
from between the trees that grow
on Mount Utsuta,
my sleeve that I wave to her—
has my dear one seen it now?
- Meaning
- From between the trees on Mount Utsuta by the sea of Iwami, I wave my sleeve to her—has my beloved seen it?
- Commentary
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Book Two Love Poems 139
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Poems by Kakinomoto no Asomi Hitomaro when he parted from his wife in the province of Iwami and came up to the capital, a poem in another text with short poems, one envoy"
He wonders whether his wife has seen the sleeve he waved through the trees on Mount Utsuta.
The sequence Hitomaro composed when he parted from his wife in Iwami and traveled up to the capital is known as the Iwami love poems and is famous as one of his masterpieces. This is the envoy to 138, the long poem transmitted in another text, and from the third line on it is identical to 132. A left note explains that although the form of the poems is the same, lines have been changed here and there, and so they are recorded again.
The author, Kakinomoto no Hitomaro, was a court poet active in the reigns of Empress Jitō and Emperor Monmu. A master of the long poem and the elegy, he is the representative poet of the Man'yōshū and was later revered as the Saint of Poetry.
The first line, "iwami no umi," corresponds to "iwami no ya" in 132 and is hypermetric, with six syllables.
In the second line, "utsuta no yama no," Mount Utsuta is of unknown location; some take it to be the same as Mount Takatsuno.
The third line, "ko no ma yori," is the same as the third line of 132.
The fourth line, "waga furu sode o," is likewise the same as in 132, showing the gesture of farewell.
The final line, "imo mitsuramu ka," is the same as the final line of 132: has she seen it?
- Author
- Kakinomoto no Hitomaro
- Source
- Manyoshu
- Prev Poem
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Akiyama ni otsuru momijiba shimashiku wa na chiri magai so imo ga atari mimu
- Next Poem
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Na omoi to kimi wa iedomo awamu toki itsu to shirite ka aga koizu aramu