武庫の浦を漕ぎ廻る小舟粟島を
そがひに見つつ羨しき小舟
そがひに見つつ羨しき小舟
- Roma-ji
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Muko no ura o kogimiru obune Awashima o sogai ni mitsutsu tomoshiki obune
- English Translation
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In the bay of Muko
the small boat that rows around,
leaving Awashima
behind it as it goes on—
how I envy that small boat!
- Meaning
- The little boat rowing about Muko Bay, with Awashima behind it as it goes—how I envy that little boat!
- Commentary
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Book Three Miscellaneous Poems 358
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Six poems by Yamabe no Sukune Akahito"
This is the second of Yamabe no Akahito's six poems. Watching a small boat rowing about Muko Bay, heading toward Yamato with Awashima behind it, he sings that he envies it. It is read as the feeling of a traveler envying a boat bound for home. Repeating "small boat" in the second and last lines intensifies his rapt gaze. Like the preceding poem, it uses the word sogai.
Yamabe no Akahito's six poems center on travel along the shores of Harima and Settsu, interweaving longing for home and love.
The poet, Yamabe no Akahito, was a court poet of the reign of Shōmu who composed many poems on royal excursions and excelled in clear, limpid landscape verse. Later ages ranked him with Kakinomoto no Hitomaro as a "Saint of Poetry."
First line "In the bay of Muko": the sea near the mouth of the Muko River in Settsu; the line has one syllable too many.
Second line "the small boat that rows around" names the little boat, repeated in the last line.
Third line "leaving Awashima": thought to be an island near Awaji, though its location is unclear.
Fourth line "behind it as it goes on" uses sogai, as in the preceding poem's second line.
Fifth line "how I envy that small boat": tomoshi means enviable. Ending on a noun, it leaves his feeling for the boat as an afterglow.
- Author
- Yamabe no Akahito
- Source
- Manyoshu
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Nawa no ura yu sogai ni miyuru okitsushima kogimiru fune wa tsuri shi surashi mo
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Ae no shima u no sumu iso ni yosuru nami manaku kono koro Yamato shi omooyu