麻苧らを麻笥にふすさに績まずとも
明日着せさめやいざせ小床に
明日着せさめやいざせ小床に
- Roma-ji
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Asaora o oke ni fususa ni umazu tomo asu kisesame ya iza se odoko ni
- English Translation
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Hemp fibers, my love,
into the hemp bowl heaped high—
though you spin no more,
will you wear it on the morrow?
Come, let us to bed.
- Meaning
- Even if you don't spin heaps of hemp thread into the bowl tonight, you won't be wearing it tomorrow—come now, to bed.
- Commentary
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Book Fourteen Azuma Poems 3484
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Sōmon (Love Exchanges)"
To a woman spinning hemp late into the night, a man says that there is no need to spin so much, since she will not wear it tomorrow; come to bed. It sings of a close couple, the man coaxing his hard-working wife with affection.
It is one of the love exchanges. Some see it as a work song set in the labor of spinning hemp, and like the Kie poem 3354 it ends with "odoko," bed.
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, "asaora o": "Asao" is hemp fiber, with the suffix "ra."
Second line, "oke ni fususa ni": "Oke" is a vessel for spun hemp, and "fususa ni" means in plenty; the line is hypermetric.
Third line, "umazu tomo": "Umu" is to spin hemp or other fiber into thread.
Fourth line, "asu kisesame ya": "Sasame ya" is rhetorical: you will not wear it tomorrow. The poem pauses here.
Final line, "iza se odoko ni": "Iza se" means come along, inviting her to bed.
- Source
- Manyoshu
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