道の辺のいつ柴原のいつもいつも
人の許さむ言をし待たむ
人の許さむ言をし待たむ
- Roma-ji
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Michi no he no itsushibahara no itsumo itsumo hito no yurusamu koto o shi matamu
- English Translation
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Like the thick brushwood
on the moor beside the road,
always, evermore,
for the word that you consent
I shall wait and wait for you
- Meaning
- Like the thick brushwood on the moor by the roadside, always, always I will wait for the word that you consent.
- Commentary
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Book Eleven Love Poems Ancient and Modern I 2770
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Expressing Feelings through Things"
The speaker resolves to wait forever for the word that the beloved will accept their love. Within this modest stance of simply waiting for consent lies the strength of a love that will never give up.
It is a poem on the brushwood moor beside the road. The device of carrying the words forward by repeating the same sound, from "itsushiba" to "itsumo itsumo," stands out, and the echo makes the long hours of waiting palpable.
The author is unknown. The anonymous poems of Book Eleven gather the love poems of people whose names have not come down to us.
First line, "michi no he no": "beside the road." It shows the roadside where people come and go.
Second line, "itsushibahara no": "of the moor of thick brushwood." The first two lines form a preface that leads, through the repeated sound "itsu," into "itsumo itsumo."
Third line, "itsumo itsumo": "always, forevermore." Running to six syllables, the doubled word conveys the strength of the will to wait.
Fourth line, "hito no yurusamu": "that you would consent." "Hito" refers to the beloved, and the conjectural "mu" imagines a consent not yet given.
Fifth line, "koto o shi matamu": "I will wait for that word." "Shi" is emphatic and "mu" expresses will, closing with a resolve to wait single-mindedly.
- Source
- Manyoshu
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