我が袖に降りつる雪も流れ行きて
妹が手本にい行き触れぬか
妹が手本にい行き触れぬか
- Roma-ji
-
Waga sode ni furitsuru yuki mo nagareyukite imo ga tamoto ni iyukifurenu ka
- English Translation
-
On my sleeve the snow
that has fallen, may it too
drift and float away
and upon my darling's sleeve
go and touch it, if it would!
- Meaning
- Might the snow that fell on my sleeve drift away and go to touch the sleeve of my beloved?
- Commentary
-
Book Ten Winter Miscellaneous Poems 2320
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "On Snow"
This poem wishes that the snow fallen on the speaker's sleeve would drift away and touch the sleeve of a distant beloved. The wish to be connected to the beloved through the snow as a go-between is expressed in a fanciful way. Like 2312 at the head of this section, which wrapped hail on the sleeve to show a wife, it links what falls on the sleeve to the beloved.
The first line, "on my sleeve," names the place.
In the second line, "furitsuru yuki mo," "tsuru" is the attributive of the completive "tsu": the snow that fell.
The third line, "drifting away," is hypermetric.
In the fourth line, "imo ga tamoto ni," "tamoto" means the cuff of the sleeve.
In the last line, "iyukifurenu ka," "i" is a prefix and "nu ka" a negative question expressing a wish: might it go and touch?
- Source
- Manyoshu
- Prev Poem
-
Yū sareba koromode samushi takamatsu no yama no ki goto ni yuki zo furitaru
- Next Poem
-
Awayuki wa kyō wa na furi so shirotae no sode maki hosamu hito mo aranaku ni