後れ居て我が恋ひ居れば白雲の
たなびく山を今日か越ゆらむ
たなびく山を今日か越ゆらむ
- Roma-ji
-
Okure ite aga koi oreba shirakumo no tanabiku yama o kyō ka koyuramu
- English Translation
-
Left behind at home,
as I sit here longing for you,
where the white clouds
trail across the mountainside—
is it today you cross?
- Meaning
- Left behind, I sit longing for you. Is today the day you cross the mountains where the white clouds trail?
- Commentary
-
Book Nine Miscellaneous Poems 1681
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Two poems by those who stayed behind"
Left behind and longing, the speaker imagines that the traveler must now be crossing the distant mountains where white clouds hang.
This is the second of the two "poems by those who stayed behind," and like the preceding poem it fixes its thoughts on the "today" when the traveler crosses the mountains.
The first line, "left behind at home," means remaining after another has gone. Poems 1771 and 1772 among the love poems of this book also begin with these words, voicing the grief of those left behind.
The second line, "as I sit here longing for you," describes the speaker's yearning.
The third line, "where the white clouds," points to clouds over faraway mountains.
The fourth line, "trail across the mountainside," conveys the great distance between the speaker and the traveler.
The final line, "is it today you cross?" forms a kakari-musubi of ka with ramu. It reverses the fourth line of the preceding poem, 1680, "today you must be crossing," so that the two poems are joined by "today" and "cross."
- Source
- Manyoshu
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Asamo yoshi ki e yuku kimi ga matsuchiyama koyuramu kyō zo ame na furi so ne
- Next Poem
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Tokoshie ni natsu fuyu yuke ya kawagoromo ōgi hanatanu yama ni sumu hito