由良の崎潮干にけらし白神の
磯の浦廻をあへて漕ぐなり
磯の浦廻をあへて漕ぐなり
- Roma-ji
-
Yura no saki shiohi ni kerashi shirakami no iso no urami o aete kogu nari
- English Translation
-
At Yura's headland
the tide, it seems, has ebbed away;
along Shirakami's
rocky shore and winding bays
I hear them rowing hard.
- Meaning
- The tide at the cape of Yura seems to have gone out. I can hear boats rowing with effort along the winding rocky coves of Shirakami.
- Commentary
-
Book Nine Miscellaneous Poems 1671
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Thirteen poems from the time when the Retired Sovereign and the Late Sovereign made a progress to the province of Kii in the tenth month, winter, of the first year of Taihō, kanoto-ushi"
At the cape of Yura the tide appears to have ebbed, and the speaker hears boats laboring along the coves of Shirakami. It is a scene rendered through sound, the state of the tide inferred from the noise of the oars.
This is the fifth of the thirteen poems from the progress to Kii in the first year of Taihō (701). The rocky shore of Shirakami is thought to be near the cape of Yura, but its location is not certain.
The first line, "at Yura's headland," repeats the place name from the third line of the preceding poem, 1670, so that the two form a pair of Yura poems.
The second line, "the tide, it seems, has ebbed away," uses kerashi, a conjecture based on evidence, and the poem pauses here. Poem 1686 of this book uses the same form in "it seems they were scattered."
The third line, "along Shirakami's," names the rocky shore.
The fourth line, "rocky shore and winding bays," uses urami, the curving inlets of a bay.
The final line, "I hear them rowing hard," joins aete, "pressing on despite difficulty," with nari, an auxiliary of inference from sound, showing that the rowing is heard rather than seen.
- Source
- Manyoshu
- Prev Poem
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Asabiraki kogi dete ware wa yura no saki tsuri suru ama o mite kaerikomu
- Next Poem
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Kuroushigata shiohi no ura o kurenai no tamamo susobiki yuku wa ta ga tsuma