いささめに今も見が欲し秋萩の
しなひにあるらむ妹が姿を
しなひにあるらむ妹が姿を
- Roma-ji
-
Isasame ni ima mo mi ga hoshi akihagi no shinai ni aruramu imo ga sugata o
- English Translation
-
Just a little while,
now at once I long to see,
like the autumn clover
supple, swaying, it must be,
the figure of my darling.
- Meaning
- If only for a moment, I long to see her now—my beloved's figure, supple as the bending autumn bush clover.
- Commentary
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Book Ten Autumn Love Poems 2284
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Love Expressed Through Flowers"
This poem longs to see, even for a moment, the beloved's figure, surely as supple as the autumn bush clover. It overlays the suppleness of bush clover branches swaying in the wind with the beloved's graceful figure. The beauty of bush clover admired in the bush clover group of the miscellaneous poems becomes in the love poems a figure for the beloved's form.
The first line, "isasame ni," means just briefly.
The second line, "I want to see now," breaks the poem after the second line.
The third line, "of the autumn bush clover," names the comparison.
In the fourth line, "shinai ni aruramu," "shinai" means suppleness and "ramu" present conjecture.
The last line, "my beloved's figure," names by inversion what the speaker wishes to see.
- Source
- Manyoshu
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Wagimoko ni ōsakayama no hadasusuki ho ni wa sakidezu koiwataru ka mo
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Akihagi no hanano no susuki ho ni wa idezu aga koiwataru komorizuma wa mo