玉かつま島熊山の夕暮れに
ひとりか君が山道越ゆらむ
ひとりか君が山道越ゆらむ
- Roma-ji
-
Tamakatsuma Shimakumayama no yūgure ni hitori ka kimi ga yamaji koyuramu
- English Translation
-
On Shimakuma Hill,
like a fine-meshed basket's lid,
as evening falls,
are you, my love, alone
crossing the mountain road
- Meaning
- In the evening dusk on Mount Shimakuma, are you crossing the mountain road alone, my love?
- Commentary
-
Book Twelve Poems Lamenting Parting 3193
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Poems Lamenting Parting"
A woman wonders whether her lover is crossing Mount Shimakuma alone at dusk. Sharing its final line with the preceding poem, it overlays loneliness on the image of a solitary figure on an evening mountain road. A variant gives the last three lines as "yūgiri ni nagakoi shitsutsu inekatenu kamo."
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, "tamakatsuma," is taken as a pillow word for "shima," though how it connects is debated. The same pillow word appears in poems 2916 and 3152 in this book.
Line two, "Shimakumayama no," is thought to be a mountain between Toyonaka and Minoh in Osaka Prefecture.
Line three, "yūgure ni," means "at dusk."
Line four, "hitori ka kimi ga," means "are you alone," with "ka" a question.
Line five, "yamaji koyuramu," means "crossing the mountain road," the same final line as the preceding poem.
- Author
- Unknown
- Source
- Manyoshu
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Kusakage no Araino saki no Kasashima o mitsutsu ka kimi ga yamaji koyuramu
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Iki no o ni aga omou kimi wa toriganaku azuma no saka o kyō ka koyuramu