赤駒のい行きはばかる真葛原
何の伝て言直にしよけむ
何の伝て言直にしよけむ
- Roma-ji
-
Akagoma no iyuki habakaru makuzuhara nani no tsutegoto tada ni shi yokemu
- English Translation
-
Like the arrowroot moor
where even the red horse
balks to make its way,
why send words by others' lips?
Better far to tell me straight
- Meaning
- Like the arrowroot moor where even a red horse balks, what use are messages passed through others? Better to tell me directly.
- Commentary
-
Book Twelve Expressing Thoughts through Things 3069
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Expressing Thoughts through Things"
A woman asks her lover to speak to her directly rather than through messages passed along by others, as roundabout as an arrowroot moor where even a red horse balks. It expresses a frank wish to meet in person without intermediaries.
The poet is unknown. Book Twelve, titled the second part of "Love Poems Exchanged Old and New," gathers love poems by people whose names have not come down to us, arranged by category.
Line one, "akagoma no," means "a red horse."
Line two, "iyuki habakaru," means "hesitates to go forward," with "i" a prefix.
Line three, "makuzuhara," is a moor overgrown with arrowroot, and the lines up to here form an introduction leading, through difficulty of passage, to roundabout "tsutegoto."
Line four, "nani no tsutegoto," means "what use are words passed through others?"
Line five, "tada ni shi yokemu," means "it would be better directly," showing her wish to meet without intermediaries.
- Author
- Unknown
- Source
- Manyoshu
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