玉梓の妹は玉かもあしひきの
清き山辺に撒けば散りぬる
清き山辺に撒けば散りぬる
- Roma-ji
-
Tamazusa no imo wa tama ka mo ashihiki no kiyoki yamabe ni makeba chirinuru
- English Translation
-
My messenger-love,
could she be a jewel?
On the foot-weary
mountainside so pure and clean
I scattered her, and she was strewn
- Meaning
- Could my wife have been a jewel? When I scattered her on the clean mountainside, she was strewn away.
- Commentary
-
Book Seven Elegies 1415
Headnote: none (Elegies section)
The poet wonders whether his wife was a jewel, for when he scattered her on the pure mountainside she was strewn away. It is understood to describe scattering the cremated remains of his wife in the hills, likening her fleeting dispersal to jewels in expressing his grief.
It is the twelfth poem in the elegy section. The next poem is a variant of this one given as "A Variant Text Reads," replacing "jewel" with "flower," "pure mountainside" with "this mountain's shade," and "was strewn" with "vanished." The poet is unknown.
The first line uses "tamazusa," normally a pillow word for "tsukai" (messenger), here attached to "imo"; it is the same as the first line of the next poem.
The second line, "could she be a jewel?," pauses the poem; the next poem has "could she be a flower?"
The third line, "ashihiki no," is the pillow word for "mountain," the same as the third line of the next poem.
The fourth line, "mountainside so pure and clean," becomes "in this mountain's shade" in the next poem.
The final line, "I scattered her, and she was strewn," becomes "she vanished" in the next poem.
- Source
- Manyoshu
- Prev Poem
-
Komomakura aimakishi ko mo araba koso yo no fukuraku mo waga oshimi seme
- Next Poem
-
Tamazusa no imo wa hana ka mo ashihiki no kono yamakage ni makeba usenuru