妹が名は千代に流れむ姫島の
小松がうれに蘿生すまでに
小松がうれに蘿生すまでに
- Roma-ji
-
Imo ga na wa chiyo ni nagaremu himeshima no komatsu ga ure ni koke musu made ni
- English Translation
-
The name of this maid
will flow on a thousand years,
until on the tips
of the young pines of Himeshima
the moss has grown and spread.
- Meaning
- This maiden's name will be handed down for a thousand ages, until moss has grown on the tips of the young pines of Himeshima.
- Commentary
-
Book Two Elegies 228
Headnote: "Two poems composed in grief by Kawabe no Miyahito on seeing the body of a maiden in the pine grove of Himeshima in the fourth year of Wadō, the year kanoto-i"
Mourning the death of a nameless maiden seen in the pine grove of Himeshima, he says her name will be told for ages, until moss grows on the tips of the young pines.
A section heading reads "the Nara Palace," and from here the poems belong to the age of the Nara capital. According to the headnote, these are two poems Kawabe no Miyahito composed in grief in the fourth year of Wadō (711) on seeing the body of a young woman in the pine grove of Himeshima in Settsu. This is the first of the two.
The author, Kawabe no Miyahito, is otherwise unknown.
The first line, "imo ga na wa," means "this maiden's name."
In the second line, "chiyo ni nagaremu," nagaru means to be passed down, and mu is conjecture: it will be handed on for a thousand ages. The poem pauses here.
The third line, "himeshima no," names an island that lay in the sea off Naniwa in Settsu.
In the fourth line, "komatsu ga ure ni," ure means the treetop; it is the same phrase as "komatsu ga ure o" in 146, the tied-pine poem of this book.
The final line, "koke musu made ni," means "until moss grows," a figure for long ages. By inversion, it names at the end how long the name will endure.
- Author
- Kawabe no Miyahito
- Source
- Manyoshu
- Prev Poem
-
Amazakaru hina no arano ni kimi o okite omoitsutsu areba ikeru tomo nashi
- Next Poem
-
Naniwagata shiohi na ari so ne shizuminishi imo ga sugata o mimaku kurushi mo