天の原富士の柴山この暗の
時ゆつりなば逢はずかもあらむ
時ゆつりなば逢はずかもあらむ
- Roma-ji
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Ama no hara fuji no shibayama ko no kure no toki yutsuri naba awazu kamo aramu
- English Translation
-
High plain of heaven—
Fuji's slopes of brushwood hills,
dark beneath the trees:
if the hour should slip away,
might we then never meet again?
- Meaning
- Like the dark beneath the trees on Fuji's brushwood hills—if the appointed hour slips past, might we never meet at all?
- Commentary
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Book Fourteen Azuma Poems 3355
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Sōmon (Love Exchanges)"
Through the shadowy dark of the brushwood slopes beneath Fuji, the singer fears that if the hour of their tryst passes, they may never meet. The contrast between Fuji's grandeur and the small, delicate anxiety of waiting is striking.
The left note reads "The five poems above are from Suruga Province," present-day central Shizuoka. Three of the five sing of Fuji, showing how important the mountain was among the Azuma poems.
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, "ama no hara": A phrase meaning the wide sky, used almost as a pillow word to lead to lofty Fuji.
Second line, "fuji no shibayama": The brushwood-covered hills at Fuji's foot. Fuji appears in the first Suruga poem and recurs in 3356, 3357, and 3358.
Third line, "ko no kure no": "Ko no kure" is the darkness under thick trees; the phrase also suggests "this time" and leads to the next line.
Fourth line, "toki yutsuri naba": "Yutsuru" is an eastern form of "utsuru," to shift or pass. "Naba" marks a supposition.
Final line, "awazu kamo aramu": "Kamo" is interrogative and "mu" conjectural: the poem closes in worry that they may not meet.
- Source
- Manyoshu
- Prev Poem
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Kiebito no madarabusuma ni wata sawada irinamashi mono imo ga odoko ni
- Next Poem
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Fuji no ne no iya tōnagaki yamaji o mo imogari to eba ke ni yobazu kinu