栲領巾の懸けまく欲しき妹が名を
この背の山に懸けばいかにあらむ
この背の山に懸けばいかにあらむ
- Roma-ji
-
Takuhire no kakemaku hoshiki imo ga na o kono Se no yama ni kakeba ika ni aramu
- English Translation
-
White as a stole worn,
that I long to speak aloud—
the name of my love:
if I laid it on this mount,
the Mount of Se, how would it be?
- Meaning
- The name of my wife, which I long to speak aloud—what if I gave it to this Mount Se, the "Husband Mountain"?
- Commentary
-
Book Three Miscellaneous Poems 285
Headnote: "A poem composed by Tajihi no Mahito Kasamaro when he went to the province of Kii and crossed Mount Se"
This playful poem was composed while crossing Mount Se on the way to Kii. Since se can mean "husband," he asks his companions: what if we gave this mountain the name of the wife I long for, and called it "Wife Mountain"? Kasuga no Oyu answers in the next poem. At the end of the original text there is a note of variant, "One version says: if I exchanged it, how would it be"; here the main text, "if I laid it on," is followed. Mount Se is in present-day Katsuragi, Ito District, Wakayama.
The poet, Tajihi no Kasamaro, was an official of the early Nara period, but little is known of him.
First line "White as a stole worn": takuhire, a white scarf woven of mulberry fiber, is worn over the shoulders and so is a pillow word for kaku, "to hang."
Second line "that I long to speak aloud": kaku here means to utter, and maku is the nominalized form of mu—"which I wish to say aloud."
Third line "the name of my love" is the name of the wife he misses on his journey.
Fourth line "if I laid it on this mount": because se suggests "husband," giving the mountain his wife's name is a jest.
Fifth line "how would it be": kaku here means to bestow a name, echoing its other sense in the second line. The line has one syllable too many.
- Author
- Tajihi no Kasamaro
- Source
- Manyoshu
- Prev Poem
-
Yakizu e ni waga yukishikaba Suruga naru Abe no ichiji ni aishi kora wa mo
- Next Poem
-
Yoroshinae waga se no kimi ga oikinishi kono Se no yama o imo to wa yobaji