君がため山田の沢にゑぐ摘むと
雪消の水に裳の裾濡れぬ
雪消の水に裳の裾濡れぬ
- Roma-ji
-
Kimi ga tame yamada no sawa ni egu tsumu to yukige no mizu ni mo no suso nurenu
- English Translation
-
All for your dear sake
in the marsh of mountain fields
gathering the egu,
in the water of melted snow
the hem of my skirt is wet.
- Meaning
- For your sake I went to gather egu in the marsh by the mountain paddies, and the hem of my skirt got wet in the water of melting snow.
- Commentary
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Book Ten Spring Miscellaneous Poems 1839
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "On Snow"
This poem tells of a woman gathering egu in the marsh by the mountain fields for her beloved, and wetting the hem of her skirt in the water of melting snow. Her readiness to be soaked by cold snowmelt while picking the young greens shows a single-hearted devotion. Within the snow group, it sings not of snow itself but of its meltwater, showing that spring is surely advancing. The motif of picking young greens for a beloved resonates with Emperor Kōkō's poem in the Kokinshū, "For your sake I go out to the spring fields to pick young greens, and on my sleeves the snow keeps falling."
The first line, "for your sake," states at the outset that all that follows is done for the beloved.
The second line, "in the marsh of the mountain fields," sets the scene by the water in a mountain village in spring.
In the third line, "egu tsumu to," "egu" is a waterside plant, thought to be a kind of water chestnut. It reflects the custom of gathering young greens in spring.
The fourth line, "in the water of melting snow," shows within the snow group that the snow has melted and spring is advancing.
In the last line, "mo no suso nurenu," "mo" is a skirt worn from the waist down and "nu" marks completion. It closes by entrusting her devotion to the concrete image of a wet hem.
- Source
- Manyoshu
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