草枕この旅の日に妻離り
家道思ふに生けるすべなし
家道思ふに生けるすべなし
- Roma-ji
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Kusamakura kono tabi no ke ni tsuma sakari ieji omou ni ikeru sube nashi
- English Translation
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Pillowed on grass,
in these days upon the road,
parted from my wife—
when I think of the road home,
I have no means to live
- Meaning
- In these days of travel, parted from my wife, when I think of the road home I have no will to go on living.
- Commentary
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Book Thirteen Elegies 3347
Headnote: "Envoy"
This is the envoy to the chōka (3346). Having lost his wife in the midst of a journey, he laments that thinking of the road home leaves him no heart to live. The chōka invites the children to go out and see what he longs to see—the lovely pine grove of Toba visible against the clouds—while reproaching the gods of heaven and earth who took his wife on a journey: if they must part them, let it be in their own land, in their own home. The envoy takes up the chōka’s close, “should you part a wife from me on this journey?”, ending in the depth of despair. The left note says a certain text reads the second line as “tabi no ke ni shite.”
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, “kusamakura,” is a pillow word for “journey.”
In the second line, “ke” (written “day”) means days; it takes up the same phrase that closes the chōka. A certain text reads it “tabi no ke ni shite.”
The third line, “tsuma sakari,” means “parted from my wife,” a veiled way of saying she has died.
The fourth line, “ieji omou ni,” means “when I think of the road home,” picturing the way back to a house without his wife.
The closing line, “ikeru sube nashi,” means “no means to live,” the same line that ends the chōka 3297 in this book, closing in deep despair.
- Source
- Manyoshu
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