大君の命畏み磯に触り
海原渡る父母を置きて
海原渡る父母を置きて
- Roma-ji
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Ōkimi no mikoto kashikomi iso ni furi unohara wataru chichihaha o okite
- English Translation
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Our great lord's command
I receive with awe and dread,
brushing the rocky shores
I cross the wide sea plain,
leaving father and mother
- Meaning
- In awe of my lord's command I cross the sea, hugging the rocky shores, leaving my father and mother behind.
- Commentary
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Book Twenty Frontier Guard Poems 4328
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."
In awe of my lord's command I cross the sea along the rocky shores, leaving my father and mother: the poem sings of the resolve and sorrow of a guard setting out by sea. According to the left note, the governor of Sagami, Fujiwara no Sukunamaro, as escort officer, presented eight poems on the seventh day of the second month, and three were recorded after five clumsy ones were omitted. This is the first. Unohara is a dialect form of unahara.
The author, Hasetsukabe no Hitomaro, is recorded as an assistant guard from Sagami; nothing more is known of him. Assistant guards are thought to have helped the leaders of the guards.
The first line, "ōkimi no," recurs throughout the frontier guard poems and names the source of the command.
The second line, "mikoto kashikomi," "in awe of the command," is a set phrase of these poems.
The third line, "iso ni furi," "brushing the rocky shore," shows a voyage hugging the coast.
The fourth line, "unohara wataru," refers to the sea route from Naniwa to Tsukushi. The poem pauses here.
The closing line, "chichihaha o okite," is inverted, setting the sorrow of leaving his parents in the last line.
- Author
- Hasetsukabe no Hitomaro
- Source
- Manyoshu
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