あぢかまの塩津をさして漕ぐ船の
名は告りてしを逢はざらめやも
名は告りてしを逢はざらめやも
- Roma-ji
-
Ajikama no shiotsu o sashite kogu fune no na wa norite shi o awazarame yamo
- English Translation
-
Like the boat that rows
to Shiotsu of Ajikama,
I have told my name:
how then could it come to pass
that we should never meet
- Meaning
- Like the boat that rows toward Shiotsu of Ajikama, bearing its name, I have already told my name; how could it be that we should not meet?
- Commentary
-
Book Eleven Love Poems Ancient and Modern I 2747
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Expressing Feelings through Things"
Since names have been told, how could the two fail to meet? So the speaker declares, confident that love will be fulfilled. In ancient times revealing one's name was a sign of opening one's heart to another, and the poem draws on that weight to voice a strong hope of meeting.
It is a poem "Expressing Feelings through Things" that uses a boat rowing toward Shiotsu as its introduction, continuing the boats of the two preceding poems. Shiotsu was a port at the northern tip of Lake Biwa, and the scene of boats crossing the lake leads into thoughts of love.
The author is unknown. The anonymous poems of Book Eleven gather love poems by people whose names have not come down to us.
First line, "ajikama no": attached to "Shiotsu," but its meaning and the way it connects are unclear; some take it as a place name, others as a pillow word.
Second line, "shiotsu o sashite": "heading for Shiotsu." Shiotsu was a port on the northern shore of Lake Biwa, through which people and goods bound for the Hokuriku region passed.
Third line, "kogu fune no": "of the boat that rows." The first three lines form an introductory phrase that is thought to lead, through the boat's "name," to "na wa norite shi" in the fourth line.
Fourth line, "na wa norite shi o": "though I have already told my name." Telling one's name was a sign of accepting the other. "Teshi" combines the perfective "tsu" and the past "ki," and "o" is concessive.
Fifth line, "awazarame yamo": "how could we not meet?" "Me yamo," the conjecture "mu" with the rhetorical "ya" and the exclamatory "mo," expresses firm conviction through a rhetorical question.
- Source
- Manyoshu
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Niwa kiyomi oki e kogizuru amabune no kaji toru ma naki koi mo suru kamo
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Ōbune ni ashini kari tsumi shimimi ni mo imo wa kokoro ni nori ni keru kamo