紫は灰さすものぞ海石榴市の
八十の街に逢へる子や誰れ
八十の街に逢へる子や誰れ
- Roma-ji
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Murasaki wa hai sasu mono zo Tsubaichi no yaso no chimata ni aeru ko ya tare
- English Translation
-
For purple dye
one adds the camellia's ash;
at Tsubaichi
where the many roads all meet,
who are you, girl I met
- Meaning
- Purple dye is made with camellia ash; and you, the girl I met at the many crossroads of Tsubaichi, who are you?
- Commentary
-
Book Twelve Dialogue Poems 3101
Headnote: "Dialogue Poems"
A man asks the name of a girl he met at the song-gathering at Tsubaichi market. Asking a woman's name meant proposing to her, and with the girl's reply in the next poem it forms a question-and-answer pair. The headnote, "Dialogue Poems," marks a category that gathers poems of address together with their replies.
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, "murasaki wa," means "purple dye from gromwell."
Line two, "hai sasu mono zo," means "is made by adding camellia ash" as a mordant, and the lines up to here form an introduction leading from camellia to "Tsubaichi," Camellia Market.
Line three, "Tsubaichi no," names the market in present-day Sakurai, Nara Prefecture, known as a site of song-gatherings. Poem 2951 in this book uses the same phrase, "Tsubaichi no yaso no chimata ni."
Line four, "yaso no chimata ni," means "at the many crossroads."
Line five, "aeru ko ya tare," means "who are you, the girl I met?"; asking a name meant proposing marriage.
- Author
- Unknown
- Source
- Manyoshu
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Omowanu o omou to iwaba matori sumu Unate no mori no kami shi shirasamu
- Next Poem
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Tarachine no haha ga yobu na o mōsamedo michiyuku hito o tare to shirite ka