苦しくも降り来る雨か三輪の崎
狭野の渡りに家もあらなくに
狭野の渡りに家もあらなくに
- Roma-ji
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Kurushiku mo furikuru ame ka Miwa no saki Sano no watari ni ie mo aranaku ni
- English Translation
-
How hard it is now,
the rain that comes pouring down!
At Miwa's headland,
at the crossing of Sano,
not a house in which to stay.
- Meaning
- How miserable, this rain pouring down—at the Sano crossing by Cape Miwa, there is not even a house for shelter.
- Commentary
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Book Three Miscellaneous Poems 265
Headnote: "A poem by Naga no Imiki Okimaro"
On a journey in Kii, caught in the rain at a crossing with no house for shelter, the poet voices his forlorn state. Cape Miwa is thought to be Miwasaki in present-day Shingū, Wakayama, and Sano the nearby place of the same name. A frank statement of the hardships of travel, it later served Fujiwara no Teika as the source poem for "No shelter where I might halt my horse and brush my sleeves—the crossing at Sano on a snowy evening," included in the Shin Kokinshū.
The poet, Naga no Okimaro, was a court poet who accompanied royal excursions from the reign of Jitō to that of Monmu, and is also known for impromptu poems weaving in the names of objects and for playful verse.
First line "How hard it is now" means "how painful and troublesome."
Second line "the rain that comes pouring down": ka is exclamatory, and the sentence breaks here.
Third line "At Miwa's headland": Cape Miwa in Kii, thought to be today's Miwasaki in Shingū.
Fourth line "at the crossing of Sano": watari is a place for crossing a river or sea.
Fifth line "not a house in which to stay": nakuni gives a sighing "though there is no house," ending in lament.
- Author
- Naga no Okimaro
- Source
- Manyoshu
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