意宇の海の河原の千鳥汝が鳴けば
我が佐保川の思ほゆらくに
我が佐保川の思ほゆらくに
- Roma-ji
-
Ou no umi no kawara no chidori na ga nakeba waga Sahogawa no omooyuraku ni
- English Translation
-
By the sea of Ou,
plovers on the riverbank,
when you cry like this,
my own Saho River comes
back to me so dear in thought.
- Meaning
- Plovers on the riverbank by the sea of Ou, when you cry, my own Saho River back home rises in my mind.
- Commentary
-
Book Three Miscellaneous Poems 371
Headnote: "A poem by Prince Kadobe, Governor of Izumo, longing for the capital," with the note "Later he was granted the clan name Ōhara no Mahito"
Composed while serving as Governor of Izumo, the poem longs for the capital. Hearing plovers cry on the riverbank by the sea of Ou, he remembers the Saho River flowing near his home in the capital. Plovers were also a noted feature of the Saho River, and the same bird's voice calls up the distant river of home. Kakinomoto no Hitomaro's poem 266 in this book likewise calls to plovers, "when you cry," recalling the past, sharing the same device.
The poet, Prince Kadobe, was a royal of the Nara period who served as Governor of Izumo and Master of the Right Capital, among other posts, and was later granted the clan name Ōhara no Mahito.
First line "By the sea of Ou": Ou was the district of the Izumo provincial office, and its sea is thought to be Nakaumi or Lake Shinji. The line has one syllable too many.
Second line "plovers on the riverbank" names the crying birds.
Third line "when you cry like this" addresses the plovers as "you," the same line as the third line of poem 266.
Fourth line "my own Saho River": the Saho flows northeast of the Heijō capital, near the poet's home.
Fifth line "comes back to me so dear in thought": omooyuraku is the nominal form of omooyu, and ni exclamatory, ending in homesickness.
- Author
- Prince Kadobe
- Source
- Manyoshu
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