秋草に置く白露の飽かずのみ
相見るものを月をし待たむ
相見るものを月をし待たむ
- Roma-ji
-
Akikusa ni oku shiratsuyu no akazu nomi aimiru mono o tsuki o shi matamu
- English Translation
-
Like the silver dew
that settles on autumn grass,
never satisfied,
we would meet, and yet must we
wait for the months to come round?
- Meaning
- Like the white dew resting on autumn grasses, we never tire of meeting; must we yet wait for the months to come round again?
- Commentary
-
Book Twenty Miscellaneous Poems 4312
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Poems on the Tanabata festival, eight poems."
Like the white dew on autumn grass we would meet without tiring, yet must we wait for the months to come round? The poem laments the brevity of the meeting. It is the seventh of the eight poems Yakamochi composed alone beneath the River of Heaven. Besides reading the "moon" of the last line as the months of the year, some read it as waiting for the moonrise.
The author, Ōtomo no Yakamochi, son of Ōtomo no Tabito, was at this time Junior Assistant Minister of Military Affairs.
The first line, "akikusa ni," gives where the dew settles, the fields around Tanabata.
The second line, "oku shiratsuyu no," lets oku, "to settle," echo aku, "to tire," so that the first two lines form a preface leading to "akazu." Following "the moon has sunk" in the preceding poem, it carries on the scene of late-night dew.
The third line, "akazu nomi," means "never tiring, only."
The fourth line, "aimiru mono o," uses mono o in concessive exclamation: "though we would meet."
The closing line, "tsuki o shi matamu," with the intensifier shi, laments: must we wait for the months? It takes up "moon" again after the close of the preceding poem.
- Author
- Otomo no Yakamochi
- Source
- Manyoshu
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-
Akikaze ni ima ka ima ka to himo tokite ura machioru ni tsuki katabukinu
- Next Poem
-
Aonami ni sode sae nurete kogu fune no kashi furu hoto ni sayo fukenamu ka