妹も我れも一つなれかも三河なる
二見の道ゆ別れかねつる
二見の道ゆ別れかねつる
- Roma-ji
-
Imo mo are mo hitotsu nare kamo Mikawa naru Futami no michi yu wakarekanetsuru
- English Translation
-
My love and I—
are we one, that it should be
here in Mikawa,
on the road of Futami,
that we cannot bear to part?
- Meaning
- Is it because my wife and I are one that here on the forking road of Futami in Mikawa we find we cannot part?
- Commentary
-
Book Three Miscellaneous Poems 276
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Eight travel poems by Takechi no Muraji Kurohito"
This is the seventh of Kurohito's eight travel poems. The road of Futami ("Two Views") in Mikawa is where the way forks in two, and though he must part from his wife there, he sings that the two of them, being one, cannot separate. There is also a playful weaving in of numbers: "one," Mikawa ("three rivers"), and Futami. A left note gives another text's version from the wife's standpoint: "If we part on the road of Futami in Mikawa, will you and I each go on alone?"
Kurohito's eight travel poems gather pieces composed on journeys through Settsu, Owari, Ōmi, Mikawa, Yamashiro, and other provinces.
The poet, Takechi no Kurohito, was active from the reign of Jitō to that of Monmu. Excelling in travel poems, he opened a distinctive vein of landscape poetry marked by a solitary gaze upon receding things. Little is known of his life.
First line "My love and I" means "my wife and I."
Second line "are we one": nare is the conditional of the copula nari, and with kamo it gives "is it because we are one?"; it is concluded by tsuru in the last line.
Third line "here in Mikawa": naru means "in." With "one" in the second line and Futami in the fourth, it weaves in numbers.
Fourth line "on the road of Futami": the place where the road divides in two; yu means "at" or "by."
Fifth line "that we cannot bear to part": kanu means to be unable, and tsuru is the attributive of the perfective tsu, completing the construction from the second line.
- Author
- Takechi no Kurohito
- Source
- Manyoshu
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Izuku ni ka ware wa yadoramu Takashima no Kachino no hara ni kono hi kurenaba
- Next Poem
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Haya kite mo mitemashi mono o Yamashiro no Taka no tsukimura chirinikeru kamo