行く船を振り留みかねいかばかり
恋しくありけむ松浦佐用姫
恋しくありけむ松浦佐用姫
- Roma-ji
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Yuku fune o furi todomi kane ikabakari koishiku arikemu matsura sayohime
- English Translation
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The departing ship
she could not hold back, though she waved;
how much, oh how much
she must have longed for him then —
Matsura Sayohime
- Meaning
- Unable to hold back the departing ship however she waved, how deeply Matsura Sayohime must have longed for him!
- Commentary
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Book Five Miscellaneous Poems 875
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Two responses by the very latest person"
The poet imagines how deeply Sayohime must have longed for her husband when her waving could not hold back the departing ship. As the last poem of the sequence, it closes by shifting the focus from the origin of the legend to Sayohime's grief itself.
The headnote tells how Ōtomo no Sadehiko, sent by imperial command as an envoy to a land across the sea, set sail; his wife, Matsura Sayohime, lamenting that parting is easy and meeting hard, climbed a high peak, gazed after the departing ship, and at last took off her scarf and waved it. None who stood by could hold back their tears, and so the mountain came to be called the Peak of the Waving Scarf. It is identified with Mount Kagami in Karatsu. Opinions differ on the authorship of this sequence, some attributing it to Ōtomo no Tabito and others to Yamanoue no Okura, and no view is settled.
First line, "yuku fune o": the departing ship, taking up the preceding poem's "ship out in the offing."
Second line, "furi todomi kane": unable to hold it back by waving, showing that the preceding poem's wish went unanswered.
Third line, "ikabakari": "how much," gauging the depth of her heart.
Fourth line, "koishiku arikemu": "kemu" is past conjecture: how she must have longed. The poem breaks here.
Fifth line, "Matsura Sayohime": the same last line for three poems in a row from 873, closing the sequence on her name.
- Source
- Manyoshu
- Prev Poem
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Unahara no oki yuku fune o kaere to ka hire furashikemu matsura sayohime
- Next Poem
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Amatobu ya tori ni mo ga mo ya miyako made okuri mōshite tobikaeru mono