大君は神にしませば天雲の
五百重が下に隠りたまひぬ
五百重が下に隠りたまひぬ
- Roma-ji
-
Ōkimi wa kami ni shi maseba amakumo no ioe ga shita ni kakuritamainu
- English Translation
-
Our great lord, being
a god, has gone and hidden
himself far away
beneath the heavenly clouds
in their five hundred layers.
- Meaning
- Our great lord, being a god, has hidden himself away beneath the countless layers of the heavenly clouds.
- Commentary
-
Book Two Elegies 205
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Poems composed by Okisome no Azumahito at the time of the death of Prince Yuge, one envoy"
The poem expresses Prince Yuge's death as a god hiding himself beneath the many layers of heavenly clouds, wrapping grief within awe.
These are elegies Okisome no Azumahito composed on the death of Prince Yuge, an envoy and a further short poem appended to the long poem 204. Prince Yuge was a son of Emperor Tenmu and died in the third year of Emperor Monmu's reign (699). This is the envoy.
The author, Okisome no Azumahito, is otherwise unknown; he appears to have served Prince Yuge.
The first line, "ōkimi wa," here refers to Prince Yuge.
In the second line, "kami ni shi maseba," shi is intensive, mase is the perfective form of the honorific masu, and ba marks a reason: since he is a god. It is a set phrase praising members of the imperial house as gods, found also in 235 of Book Three by Kakinomoto no Hitomaro and elsewhere.
The third line, "amakumo no," means "of the heavenly clouds."
The fourth line, "ioe ga shita ni," means "beneath their many layers."
In the final line, "kakuritamainu," kakuru means to die, tamau is honorific, and nu is perfective: he has hidden himself away.
- Author
- Okisome no Azumabito
- Source
- Manyoshu
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