穴師川川波立ちぬ巻向の
弓月が岳に雲居立てるらし
弓月が岳に雲居立てるらし
- Roma-ji
-
Anashigawa kawanami tachinu makimuku no yutsukigatake ni kumoi tateru rashi
- English Translation
-
On the Anashi
the river's waves are rising;
on Makimuku's
peak of Yutsuki, it seems,
the clouds are standing high
- Meaning
- Waves have risen on the Anashi River—the clouds must be towering over Yutsuki Peak in Makimuku.
- Commentary
-
Book Seven Miscellaneous Poems 1087
Headnote: "On Clouds"
Seeing waves rise on the Anashi River, the poet infers that clouds must be surging up over Yutsuki Peak upstream. Sensing the unseen weather in the mountains from a change in the river before his eyes, the poem is celebrated as a grand and dynamic landscape poem.
It is the first poem under the heading "On Clouds." The next poem also depicts clouds rising over Yutsuki Peak, and the two are appreciated as a pair.
The left note says, "The two poems above come from the Kakinomoto no Hitomaro Collection." Makimuku lies in the southeast of the Nara basin, north of Mount Miwa, and many poems in the Hitomaro Collection sing of this area.
The first line, "On the Anashi," names the river flowing down from Mount Makimuku, also called the Makimuku River.
In the second line, "the river's waves are rising," the perfective "nu" states the change before the poet's eyes decisively, and the poem pauses here.
The third line, "on Makimuku's," names the area in the southeastern Nara basin where Yutsuki Peak stands.
The fourth line, "peak of Yutsuki," refers to one of the summits of Mount Makimuku. The fourth line of the next poem is also "on Yutsuki Peak," so the same mountain is carried over from one poem to the next.
In the final line, "the clouds are standing high," "rashi" is an inference from evidence: from the rising waves, the poet concludes that clouds must be standing over the mountain.
- Source
- Manyoshu
- Prev Poem
-
Yuki kakuru tomo no o hiroki ōtomo ni kuni sakaemu to tsuki wa teru rashi
- Next Poem
-
Ashihiki no yamagawa no se no naru nae ni yutsukigatake ni kumo tachiwataru