紫の糸をぞ我が搓るあしひきの
山橘を貫かむと思ひて
山橘を貫かむと思ひて
- Roma-ji
-
Murasaki no ito o zo waga yoru ashihiki no yamatachibana o nukamu to omoite
- English Translation
-
A thread of purple
is what I am twisting now,
on the foot-dragging hills,
thinking I will string on it
the berries of mountain orange
- Meaning
- I am twisting a purple thread, thinking to string on it the red berries of the mountain orange.
- Commentary
-
Book Seven Allegorical Poems 1340
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "On Grasses"
The speaker is twisting a purple thread in order to string on it the berries of the mountain orange. The mountain orange stands for the woman he loves and threading its berries for making her his own, expressing his preparations to be united with her.
It is one of the poems on grasses. The shape of the poem, pausing after the second line with "zo" and ending with an inverted "thinking I would ...," is the same as poem 1255 in this book, "With dayflower blue I am dyeing cloth for you ... thinking I would rub a robe." The poet is unknown.
The first line, "A thread of purple," names the color of the thread.
The second line, "is what I am twisting now," is a kakari-musubi construction in which "zo" is answered by the attributive "yoru," and the poem pauses here.
The third line uses "ashihiki no," a pillow word for "mountain."
The fourth line names the mountain orange, the marlberry, which bears red berries in winter.
The final line, "thinking I will string on it," gives the purpose by inversion, in the same form as the last line of poem 1255 in this book.
- Source
- Manyoshu
- Prev Poem
-
Tsukikusa ni koromo irodori surame domo utsurou iro to iu ga kurushisa
- Next Poem
-
Matama tsuku ochi no sugahara ware karazu hito no karamaku oshiki sugahara