ひさかたの天行く月を網に刺し
我が大君は蓋にせり
我が大君は蓋にせり
- Roma-ji
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Hisakata no ame yuku tsuki o ami ni sashi waga ōkimi wa kinugasa ni seri
- English Translation
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Heaven-far and wide,
the moon that crosses the sky
caught up in his net—
our great lord has made of it
a canopy for his head.
- Meaning
- Catching in his net the moon that journeys across the sky, our great lord has made it the silk canopy held above him.
- Commentary
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Book Three Miscellaneous Poems 240
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "A poem with tanka composed by Kakinomoto no Hitomaro when Prince Naga went hunting at Karuji Pond" — "One envoy"
This is the envoy attached to a long poem praising Prince Naga's hunt. The moon crossing the sky is caught in the hunting net and held over the prince as the canopy borne above a noble—a vision of the night moon as an ornament to his glory. Linking the hunting net and the moon in such a bold, fantastic exaggeration is praise in Hitomaro's own style. Prince Naga was a son of Emperor Tenmu, and Karuji Pond is thought to lie near Rokuro in present-day Sakurai, Nara.
The poet, Kakinomoto no Hitomaro, was a court poet active from the reign of Jitō to that of Monmu, master of both long and short poems, later revered as the "Saint of Poetry."
First line "Heaven-far and wide" renders hisakata no, a pillow word for "heaven" and "moon."
Second line "the moon that crosses the sky" means the moon traveling over the heavens.
Third line "caught up in his net" draws the net from the hunting scene and fastens the moon in it.
Fourth line "our great lord" refers here to Prince Naga; the title ōkimi was applied to princes as well.
Fifth line "a canopy": kinugasa is the long-handled silk parasol held over nobles. Seri, su with the continuative ri, declares that he holds the moon aloft as his canopy.
- Author
- Kakinomoto no Hitomaro
- Source
- Manyoshu
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