三輪山の山辺真麻木綿短か木綿
かくのみからに長くと思ひき
かくのみからに長くと思ひき
- Roma-ji
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Miwayama no yamabe masoyū mijikayū kaku nomi kara ni nagaku to omoiki
- English Translation
-
On Mount Miwa's slopes,
the hemp cloth they make for the gods,
the short-length cloth—
and though it was only so short,
I thought her life would be long.
- Meaning
- Like the short hemp cloth offered to the gods on the slopes of Mount Miwa, her life was only so short, yet I had thought it would be long.
- Commentary
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Book Two Elegies 157
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Three poems composed by Prince Takechi at the time of the death of Princess Tōchi"
Laying Princess Tōchi's short life over the short strips of hemp cloth used in the rites of Mount Miwa, he regrets having believed that a life so fragile would last long.
According to the headnote, these are three poems Prince Takechi composed when Princess Tōchi died, under the section heading "the reign of the Emperor who ruled from the Kiyomihara Palace in Asuka." Princess Tōchi was the daughter of Emperor Tenmu and Princess Nukata and had been the consort of Prince Ōtomo. A left note, citing the Nihon shoki, records that in the fourth month of the seventh year of Tenmu's reign she was suddenly taken ill and died in the palace. The first of the three, 156, contains lines that cannot be read with certainty and is therefore not treated here. This is the second of the three.
The author, Prince Takechi, was the eldest son of Emperor Tenmu. He led the army with distinction in the Jinshin War and became Chancellor of the Realm under Empress Jitō.
In the first line, "miwayama no," Mount Miwa was revered as the sacred mountain of the god of Yamato.
The second line, "yamabe masoyū," means hemp cloth made on the mountain slopes; yū was cloth used in sacred rites.
The preface runs through the third line, "mijikayū," leading from short cloth to a short life.
The fourth line, "kaku nomi kara ni," means "though it was only this short."
In the final line, "nagaku to omoiki," ki is past: I had thought it would be long. The "short" of the third line is set against the "long" of the last.
- Author
- Prince Takechi
- Source
- Manyoshu
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Sasanami no ōyamamori wa ta ga tame ka yama ni shime yuu kimi mo aranaku ni
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Yamabuki no tachiyosoitaru yamashimizu kumi ni yukamedo michi no shiranaku