伎倍人のまだら衾に綿さはだ
入りなましもの妹が小床に
入りなましもの妹が小床に
- Roma-ji
-
Kiebito no madarabusuma ni wata sawada irinamashi mono imo ga odoko ni
- English Translation
-
The Kie people's
quilts of mottled patterned cloth
are stuffed full of floss:
so should I have slipped inside—
into the bed of my love.
- Meaning
- As floss is packed thick into the mottled quilts of the Kie folk, so should I have slipped right in—into my darling's little bed.
- Commentary
-
Book Fourteen Azuma Poems 3354
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Sōmon (Love Exchanges)"
Just as the quilts of the Kie folk are stuffed thick with floss, the singer wishes he had slipped into his beloved's bed. The playful, bold use of an everyday quilt as the figure is typical of folk song.
The left note reads "The two poems above are from Tōtōmi Province," pairing it with the preceding poem. Where that poem urges lying together, this one regrets the chance missed, so invitation and regret form a pair.
The poet is unknown. The Azuma uta are thought to have been sung among the people of the eastern provinces, and they are marked by plain, open-hearted expression mixed with local dialect.
First line, "kiebito no": The people of Kie. Taking up "the grove of Kie" from the preceding poem, it begins with the same place name.
Second line, "madarabusuma ni": A quilt dyed in a mottled pattern; "fusuma" is the cover laid over a sleeper.
Third line, "wata sawada": "Sawada" is an eastern word for "much." The first three lines form a preface leading to "slipping in."
Fourth line, "irinamashi mono": "Namashi" is counterfactual: I should have gone in, but did not. "Mono" adds a note of regretful exclamation. The poem pauses here, with inversion.
Final line, "imo ga odoko ni": "Odoko" is a sleeping place. Through the inversion, the poem reveals at the end where he wished to enter.
- Source
- Manyoshu
- Prev Poem
-
Aratama no kie no hayashi ni na o tatete yukikatsumashiji i o sakidatane
- Next Poem
-
Ama no hara fuji no shibayama ko no kure no toki yutsuri naba awazu kamo aramu