夕星も通ふ天道をいつまでか
仰ぎて待たむ月人壮士
仰ぎて待たむ月人壮士
- Roma-ji
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Yūzutsu mo kayou amaji o itsu made ka aogite matamu tsukihitootoko
- English Translation
-
Where the evening star
also comes and goes, heaven's road—
how long will you wait,
gazing up, till when, I wonder,
young man of the moon above?
- Meaning
- How long will you go on gazing up and waiting along the road of heaven, where even the evening star passes, O young man of the moon?
- Commentary
-
Book Ten Autumn Miscellaneous Poems 2010
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Tanabata"
This poem wonders how long the moon youth will gaze up and wait along the road of heaven where even the evening star comes and goes. "Tsukihitootoko," the man in the moon, personifies the moon, and with the moon and the evening star joining the two Tanabata stars, the heavenly world is vividly depicted like a world of human love. The moon too is sung as if waiting for a meeting on the Tanabata night.
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.
In the first line, "yūzutsu mo," "yūzutsu" is the evening star, Venus.
The second line, "the road of heaven where it passes," names the path.
In the third line, "itsu made ka," "ka" is an interrogative particle in kakari-musubi with "mu" in the fourth line.
The fourth line, "will you gaze up and wait," breaks the poem after the fourth line.
The last line, "tsukihitootoko," the moon likened to a young man, closes as an address.
- Author
- Kakinomoto no Hitomaro
- Source
- Manyoshu
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