八千桙の神の御代よりともし妻
人知りにけり継ぎてし思へば
人知りにけり継ぎてし思へば
- Roma-ji
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Yachihoko no kami no miyo yori tomoshizuma hito shirinikeri tsugite shi omoeba
- English Translation
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From the age of gods,
of Yachihoko the god,
a wife seldom met—
others now have come to know,
for I've thought of her unceasing.
- Meaning
- Since the age of the god Yachihoko she has been a wife I rarely meet—and now people have come to know of it, for I have thought of her without end.
- Commentary
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Book Ten Autumn Miscellaneous Poems 2002
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Tanabata"
This poem says that because the speaker has longed without ceasing for a wife rarely met since the age of the god Yachihoko, people have at last come to know of it. "Yachihoko no kami" is another name for Ōkuninushi, tracing the love of the Tanabata stars back to Japan's age of the gods to show its antiquity. The human picture of a love that cannot be hidden and becomes known to others is overlaid on the stars' love.
Kakinomoto no Hitomaro was a court poet of the Asuka period, active under Empress Jitō and Emperor Monmu. The left note records that this poem comes from the Kakinomoto no Hitomaro Collection, and it is uncertain whether it is Hitomaro's own work or a poem by someone else that he recorded.
The first line, "yachihoko no," refers to the god Yachihoko, another name for Ōkuninushi.
The second line, "since the age of the god," shows how old the stars' love is.
The third line, "tomoshizuma," means a wife seldom met.
In the fourth line, "hito shirinikeri," "keri" expresses realization, and the poem breaks here.
In the last line, "tsugite shi omoeba," "tsugite" means unceasingly and "shi" is emphatic; by inversion it gives the reason at the end.
- Author
- Kakinomoto no Hitomaro
- Source
- Manyoshu
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