阿胡の海の荒礒の上のさざれ波
我が恋ふらくはやむ時もなし
我が恋ふらくはやむ時もなし
- Roma-ji
-
Ago no umi no ariso no ue no sazare nami aga kouraku wa yamu toki mo nashi
- English Translation
-
On the rugged shore
of the sea at Ago Bay
the little waves break—
and this longing that I feel
knows no moment of rest
- Meaning
- Like the little waves that break without pause on the rugged shore of Ago Bay, my longing for you never ceases.
- Commentary
-
Book Thirteen Miscellaneous Poems 3244
Headnote: "Envoy"
This is the envoy to the chōka (3243). Taking as its introduction the little waves breaking ceaselessly on the rocky shore of Ago, it sings of a longing for one’s wife that never stops. In the chōka the traveler goes on longing for his wife “ever more and more,” “ever again and again,” like the tides and waves of Nagato Bay, and senses her love in the waving sleeves of the fisher-girls. The envoy entrusts love to the ceaseless waves and closes briefly. The same final line, “yamu toki mo nashi,” also ends the chōka 3260 in this book, a set phrase in love poetry.
The poet is unknown. Book Thirteen is built mainly of anonymous chōka and their envoys, and many of its poems preserve the air of old songs and ritual verse.
The first line, “Ago no umi no,” is a place name, said to be a sea near the Nagato Bay of the chōka; one theory places it near Kurahashi Island in Kure, Hiroshima.
In the second line, “ariso” is a rocky shore with rough waves, read “ariso.”
The third line, “sazare nami,” means the small waves lapping in; up to here the lines form an introduction leading to ceaselessness.
In the fourth line, “kouraku” attaches the nominalizing “raku” to the verb “kou” (to long), meaning “my longing.”
The closing line, “yamu toki mo nashi,” means it never ceases, binding the endless coming and going of waves to the heart’s longing.
- Source
- Manyoshu
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Ametsuchi o nageki koinomi sakiku araba mata kaerimimu shiga no karasaki
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Ame naru ya tsukihi no gotoku aga omoeru kimi ga hi ni ke ni oyuraku oshi mo