父母が殿の後方のももよ草
百代いでませ我が来るまで
百代いでませ我が来るまで
- Roma-ji
-
Chichihaha ga tono no shirie no momoyogusa momoyo idemase waga kitaru made
- English Translation
-
At the back of the house
where my father and mother dwell
grows momoyo grass;
for a hundred ages live on
till the day I come back home
- Meaning
- Like the momoyo grass growing behind my parents' house, may you live on for a hundred ages, until I come home.
- Commentary
-
Book Twenty Frontier Guard Poems 4326
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."
Like the momoyo grass behind my parents' house, may you live a hundred ages, until I return: a poem wishing long life to his parents. The sixth poem from Tōtōmi, it takes a familiar plant of the home as words of parting and prays for a safe reunion.
The author, Ikutamabe no Tarikuni, was a guard from Sano District in Tōtōmi; nothing more is known of him.
The first line, "chichihaha ga," names his parents and modifies "house." Like the first line of the preceding poem, it opens with father and mother.
The second line, "tono no shirie no," means "behind the house," tono being a respectful word for the dwelling.
The third line, "momoyogusa," is a plant not now identified; the first three lines form a preface leading by sound to momoyo, "a hundred ages."
The fourth line, "momoyo idemase," uses imasu, honorific for "to be": please remain for a hundred ages. The poem pauses here.
The closing line, "waga kitaru made," is inverted, adding the limit: until I return.
- Author
- Ikutamabe no Tarikuni
- Source
- Manyoshu
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Chichihaha mo hana ni mo ga mo ya kusamakura tabi wa yuku tomo sasagote yukamu
- Next Poem
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Waga tsuma mo e ni kakitoramu itsuma mo ga tabi yuku are wa mitsutsu shinowamu