筑波嶺の裾廻の田居に秋田刈る
妹がり遣らむ黄葉手折らな
妹がり遣らむ黄葉手折らな
- Roma-ji
-
Tsukubane no susomi no tai ni akita karu imo gari yaramu momichi taorana
- English Translation
-
In the paddy fields
round the foot of Tsukuba,
to the girl reaping
autumn rice I'll send a gift;
let me pluck these crimson leaves.
- Meaning
- To the girl reaping autumn rice in the paddies around the foot of Mount Tsukuba I will send a gift; let me break off some autumn leaves.
- Commentary
-
Book Nine Miscellaneous Poems 1758
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "A poem on climbing Mount Tsukuba, with tanka"; envoy
The speaker resolves to break off autumn leaves to send to a girl reaping rice in the fields at the foot of Mount Tsukuba. Drawn to the autumn fields and the girl seen from the summit, he shows the bright mood of one whose travel cares have lifted.
This is the envoy to the long poem 1757 in this book. The long poem tells how, climbing Mount Tsukuba to ease the sorrows of travel, the speaker saw geese crying coldly over the fields of Shitsuku where pampas plumes were falling, and white waves raised by the autumn wind on the lake of Toba, and at that fine view the sorrows of many days vanished.
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 paddy fields," sets the scene below the mountain.
The second line, "round the foot of Tsukuba," like the long poem's "fields of Shitsuku," describes fields seen from above.
The third line, "to the girl reaping," modifies the girl who follows.
The fourth line, "autumn rice I'll send a gift," uses the suffix gari, "to the place of."
The final line, "let me pluck these crimson leaves," ends with the volitional na; inversion places the gift at the close.
- Author
- Takahashi no Mushimaro (from the Mushimaro Collection)
- Source
- Manyoshu
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