波の間ゆ見ゆる小島の浜久木
久しくなりぬ君に逢はずして
久しくなりぬ君に逢はずして
- Roma-ji
-
Nami no ma yu miyuru kojima no hamahisagi hisashiku narinu kimi ni awazu shite
- English Translation
-
Seen between the waves,
on the shore of a small isle,
the hisagi tree:
how long the time has grown now,
with never a meeting with you
- Meaning
- Like the hisagi tree on the shore of the little island seen between the waves, so long it has been now, without my meeting you.
- Commentary
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Book Eleven Love Poems Ancient and Modern I 2753
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Expressing Feelings through Things"
This love poem laments that a long time has passed without meeting the beloved. The hisagi tree on the shore of a small island glimpsed between the waves serves as the introduction, conveying the long stretch of time spent far apart.
It is a poem "Expressing Feelings through Things" that speaks through the beach hisagi tree, following the silk tree of the preceding poem with another tree. Poem 2750 in this book also sings of the long days without meeting in "awazu hisashi mo," and this poem treats the same theme through the name of the hisagi.
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, "nami no ma yu": "from between the waves." "Yu" is a case particle marking passage or origin.
Second line, "miyuru kojima no": "of the small island that can be seen," picturing a distant isle glimpsed between the waves.
Third line, "hamahisagi": a hisagi tree growing on the beach. The first three lines form an introductory phrase that, through the shared sounds of "hisagi" and "hisashi," leads to "hisashiku" in the fourth line.
Fourth line, "hisashiku narinu": "it has grown long." "Nu" is a perfective auxiliary; the poem breaks here, inverted with the last line. It voices the same feeling as "awazu hisashi mo" in the second line of poem 2750 in this book.
Fifth line, "kimi ni awazu shite": "without meeting you." Through inversion it adds afterward the reason the time has grown long.
- Source
- Manyoshu
- Prev Poem
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Wagimoko o kiki tsuganobe no shinai nebu ware wa shinobazu ma naku shi omoeba
- Next Poem
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Asakashiwa uruyakawabe no shino no me no shinoite nureba ime ni mie keri