奥山の菅の葉しのぎ降る雪の
消なば惜しけむ雨な降りそね
消なば惜しけむ雨な降りそね
- Roma-ji
-
Okuyama no suga no ha shinogi furu yuki no kenaba oshikemu ame na furi so ne
- English Translation
-
In the deep mountains,
pressing down the sedge's leaves,
the snow has fallen—
were it to melt, how I'd grieve;
rain, I pray, do not fall.
- Meaning
- The snow that has fallen deep in the mountains, bowing down the leaves of the sedge—how sad if it should melt. Rain, please do not fall.
- Commentary
-
Book Three Miscellaneous Poems 299
Headnote: "A poem by the Great Counselor Lord Ōtomo," with the note "Unknown"
Loath to see the lovely snow—fallen deep enough to press down the sedge leaves in the far mountains—melt away in the rain, the poet begs the rain not to fall. His love of the snowy scene is expressed simply as a plea to the rain. The note "Unknown" in the headnote indicates that the author's identity is not settled.
There is no settled view on who "the Great Counselor Lord Ōtomo" was. The title honors a high official of the Ōtomo clan who held the office of Great Counselor, and he has been identified either as Ōtomo no Yasumaro or as Ōtomo no Tabito.
First line "In the deep mountains" means the remote heights.
Second line "pressing down the sedge's leaves": suge is sedge, and shinogu means to press down—the leaves bowed under the snow's weight.
Third line "the snow has fallen" names the snow lying there.
Fourth line "were it to melt, how I'd grieve": ke is "to melt away," na the conditional stem of the perfective nu, and ba conditional; oshikemu means "it would be regrettable." The sentence breaks here.
Fifth line "rain, I pray, do not fall": na ... so is a prohibition and ne a wish, ending in an appeal to the rain.
- Author
- The Great Counselor Lord Ōtomo
- Source
- Manyoshu
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