常世辺に住むべきものを剣大刀
汝が心からおそやこの君
汝が心からおそやこの君
- Roma-ji
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Tokoyobe ni sumubeki mono o tsurugitachi na ga kokoro kara oso ya kono kimi
- English Translation
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In the Land Everlasting
he could have dwelt forever,
like a sword's keen edge;
by your own heart it was lost,
what a fool you are, my lord!
- Meaning
- He could have lived forever in the Everlasting Land, yet through his own heart he lost it all. What a fool this man is!
- Commentary
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Book Nine Miscellaneous Poems 1741
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "A poem on Urashima of Mizunoe, with tanka"; envoy
The poem laments Urashima as a fool: he might have lived on in the Everlasting Land, but by his own doing he opened the box and lost everything. Taking up the tale of the long poem, the narrator speaks his mind plainly.
This is the envoy to the long poem 1740 in this book. The long poem recalls, at the sight of fishing boats off Suminoe, the old tale of Urashima of Mizunoe, who lived with the sea god's daughter in the Everlasting Land but opened the forbidden box and grew old and died. It is known as one of the oldest records of the Urashima legend.
The author, Takahashi no Mushimaro, was a poet of the early Nara period who is thought to have served under Fujiwara no Umakai when Umakai was governor of Hitachi. He excelled at long poems on local legends and the landscape of the eastern provinces. This poem is taken from the Mushimaro Collection, which is thought to consist mainly of his own works.
The first line, "in the Land Everlasting," names the land of eternal life.
The second line, "he could have dwelt forever," ends with the adversative mono o, expressing regret.
The third line, "like a sword's keen edge," is a pillow word for na, "you," since na also means a blade.
The fourth line, "by your own heart it was lost," uses kara to express cause.
The final line, "what a fool you are, my lord," uses oso, "foolish," with the exclamatory ya, and inversion strengthens the lament.
- Author
- Takahashi no Mushimaro (from the Mushimaro Collection)
- Source
- Manyoshu
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Kanato ni shi hito no kitateba yonaka ni mo mi wa tana shirazu idete zo aikeru
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Ōhashi no tsume ni ie araba maganashiku hitori yuku ko ni yado kasamashi o