馬ないたく打ちてな行きそ日ならべて
見ても我が行く志賀にあらなくに
見ても我が行く志賀にあらなくに
- Roma-ji
-
Uma na itaku uchite na yuki so ke narabete mite mo waga yuku Shiga ni aranaku ni
- English Translation
-
Do not whip the horse,
do not drive it on so hard—
day after day long
could I journey gazing on it?
This is Shiga, and not so.
- Meaning
- Don't whip the horse so hard and hurry on—this is not Shiga, a place I can pass through gazing day after day.
- Commentary
-
Book Three Miscellaneous Poems 263
Headnote: "A poem composed by Osakabe no Tarumaro when coming up from the province of Ōmi"
On the road up to the capital from Ōmi, the poet, loath to leave the lovely scenery of Shiga, calls on his attendants not to urge the horses on. His reluctance to part from a land he may never again see at leisure becomes praise of the place. The next poem was also composed when coming up from Ōmi, and the two form a pair in the arrangement.
The poet, Osakabe no Tarumaro, was an official of the early Nara period, but nothing more is known of him.
First line "Do not whip the horse": na is an adverb that pairs with so in the next line to form a prohibition. The line has one syllable too many.
Second line "do not drive it on so hard" completes na ... so, "do not go whipping." The sentence breaks here.
Third line "day after day long": the character for "day" is read ke, meaning days; narabete means lining them up.
Fourth line "could I journey gazing on it" modifies Shiga in the last line.
Fifth line "This is Shiga, and not so": nakuni, the nominalized negative with ni, ends with a sigh—"since it is no such Shiga."
- Author
- Osakabe no Tarumaro
- Source
- Manyoshu
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Yatsuriyama kodachi mo miezu furimagau yuki ni sawakeru ashita tanoshi mo
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Mononofu no yaso Ujikawa no ajirogi ni isayou nami no yukue shirazu mo