さを鹿の胸別けにかも秋萩の
散り過ぎにける盛りかも去ぬる
散り過ぎにける盛りかも去ぬる
- Roma-ji
-
Saoshika no munawake ni kamo akihagi no chirisuginikeru sakari kamo inuru
- English Translation
-
Was it that the stag
pushed its breast through them, perhaps,
the autumn clover
scattered and fallen away?
Or has their full bloom passed?
- Meaning
- Was it the stag pushing through with its breast that scattered the autumn bush clover? Or has its prime simply passed away?
- Commentary
-
Book Eight Autumn Miscellaneous Poems 1599
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Three autumn poems by Ōtomo no Sukune Yakamochi"
The poet wonders why the autumn bush clover has fallen: did a stag push through with its breast, or has the flowers' prime simply passed? The vigorous stag bounding through the fields is set against the frailty of clover past its peak. The note dates it to the eighth month of autumn, Tenpyō 15 (743); it is the last of the three poems.
The author, Ōtomo no Yakamochi, was a son of Ōtomo no Tabito and an official of the Nara period. He rose to the post of Middle Counselor, is thought to have been closely involved in compiling the Man'yōshū, and left more poems than anyone else in the anthology.
The first line takes up the first line of the preceding poem, singing of the stag of the same fields.
In the second line, "munawake" means pushing through plants with the breast, and the interrogative "kamo" makes it a surmise.
The third line names the fallen autumn clover.
The fourth line answers the "ka" of the second line with the attributive of the exclamatory "keri," stating that they have fallen. The poem pauses here.
The final line closes in the attributive "inuru" in answer to "ka," surmising another reason: has their prime gone? Repeating "kamo" in the second and final lines, the poem sets two reasons side by side and expresses a heart that wavers between them.
- Author
- Otomo no Yakamochi
- Source
- Manyoshu
- Prev Poem
-
Saoshika no asa tatsu nobe no akihagi ni tama to miru made okeru shiratsuyu
- Next Poem
-
Tsumagoi ni ka naku yamabe no akihagi wa tsuyushimo samumi sakari sugiyuku