秋風に靡く川辺のにこ草の
にこよかにしも思ほゆるかも
にこよかにしも思ほゆるかも
- Roma-ji
-
Akikaze ni nabiku kawabi no nikogusa no nikoyaka ni shimo omōyuru kamo
- English Translation
-
In the autumn wind
soft grasses by the river
bend and sway about;
like their name, how gently now
my thoughts of you come smiling
- Meaning
- Like the soft grass bending by the river in the autumn wind, so gently and gladly do my thoughts of you come to me.
- Commentary
-
Book Twenty Miscellaneous Poems 4309
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Poems on the Tanabata festival, eight poems."
Like the soft grass bending by the river in the autumn wind, so gently do my thoughts come: the poem sings of a peaceful heart as the meeting draws near. The fourth of the eight poems Yakamochi composed alone beneath the River of Heaven, it turns from the ache of the earlier poems to the joy of the approaching day, entrusted to the soft grasses.
The author, Ōtomo no Yakamochi, son of Ōtomo no Tabito, was at this time Junior Assistant Minister of Military Affairs.
The first line, "akikaze ni," gives the season of the set; it recurs as a first line later in the series.
The second line, "nabiku kawabi no," suggests the banks of the River of Heaven and pictures the soft grasses bending in the wind.
The third line, "nikogusa no," names a soft grass. The first three lines form a preface leading by sound to nikoyaka ni.
The fourth line, "nikoyaka ni shimo," means "gently, smilingly," with the intensifier shimo.
The closing line, "omōyuru kamo," "how she comes to mind," ends in the exclamatory kamo.
- Author
- Otomo no Yakamochi
- Source
- Manyoshu
- Prev Poem
-
Hatsuobana hana ni mimu to shi amanogawa henarinikerashi toshi no o nagaku
- Next Poem
-
Aki sareba kiri tachiwataru amanogawa ishinami okaba tsugite mimu kamo