我が妻はいたく恋ひらし飲む水に
影さへ見えてよに忘られず
影さへ見えてよに忘られず
- Roma-ji
-
Waga tsuma wa itaku koirashi nomu mizu ni kago sae miete yo ni wasurarezu
- English Translation
-
My wife, it would seem,
is longing for me sorely;
in the water I drink
even her face appears,
and I can never forget
- Meaning
- My wife must be longing for me terribly, for even her face appears in the water I drink, and I cannot forget her at all.
- Commentary
-
Book Twenty Frontier Guard Poems 4322
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Poems of the frontier guards sent in rotation to the provinces of Tsukushi in the second month of Tenpyō Shōhō 7, year of the wood sheep."
My wife must be longing for me terribly, for even her face appears in the water I drink and I cannot forget her: a poem of thinking of his wife on the road. Drawing on the belief of the time that a person who longs strongly for another appears in that person's dreams or reflections, he takes the image in the water as a sign of his wife's longing. It is the second of the poems presented from Tōtōmi; kago is a dialect form of kage.
The author, Wakayamatobe no Mimaro, is recorded as a clerk guard from Aratama District in Tōtōmi; nothing more is known of him. Such clerk guards are thought to have kept records among the guards.
The first line, "waga tsuma wa," names his wife as the one who longs, setting the theme.
The second line, "itaku koirashi," uses rashi, inference from evidence, the evidence being the face in the lower half. The poem pauses here.
The third line, "nomu mizu ni," the water he drinks on the journey, shows his wife appearing in daily life.
The fourth line, "kago sae miete," uses kago, dialect for kage, "image," with sae, "even her face."
The closing line, "yo ni wasurarezu," uses yo ni with the negative, "never," ending: I can never forget.
- Author
- Wakayamatobe no Mimaro
- Source
- Manyoshu
- Prev Poem
-
Kashikoki ya mikoto kagafuri asu yuri ya kae ga muta nemu imu nashi ni shite
- Next Poem
-
Tokidoki no hana wa sakedomo nani sure zo haha tou hana no sakidekozukemu