さを鹿の入野のすすき初尾花
いづれの時か妹が手まかむ
いづれの時か妹が手まかむ
- Roma-ji
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Saoshika no irino no susuki hatsuobana izure no toki ka imo ga te makamu
- English Translation
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Where the stags go in,
Irino's pampas grass there,
the first plumes of it—
when, oh, when will the day come
I may pillow on her arm?
- Meaning
- Like the first plumes of pampas grass on Irino, where the stag goes in—when will the time come that I may pillow my head on my beloved's arm?
- Commentary
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Book Ten Autumn Love Poems 2277
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Love Expressed Through Flowers"
This poem longs to know when the speaker may lie with a beloved as fresh as the first plumes of pampas grass on Irino. The youthfulness of the first pampas plumes is overlaid with the freshness of a beloved not yet met in love. The opening "saoshika no" is a preface leading into "Irino" from the sense of the stag entering the field.
The first line, "saoshika no," leads into "Irino" from the stag's entering.
In the second line, "irino no susuki," Irino is thought to be a place name.
The third line, "hatsuobana," the year's first pampas plumes, makes the upper lines a figure for the beloved's freshness.
In the fourth line, "izure no toki ka," "ka" is an interrogative particle in kakari-musubi with "mu" in the last line.
In the last line, "imo ga te makamu," "maku" means to pillow on: when shall I pillow on her arm?
- Source
- Manyoshu
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